As part of a money laundering probe connected to an online gambling software “scam,” the Enforcement Directorate announced on Tuesday that it had taken control of monies totaling ₹ 90 crore that had been stored in cryptocurrency wallets of exchanges like Binance, ZebPay, and WazirX.
“These crypto assets were subsequently taken into possession and transferred into the crypto wallet of the ED,” the federal agency said in a statement.
The subject of the inquiry is an online gaming fraud program known as “E-Nugget,” which pretended to be a gaming platform and gave customers significant returns on their investments.
The ED case that was registered in accordance with the guidelines of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was founded upon a formal complaint that was lodged at the Park Street Police Station in Kolkata.
According to the ED, the app promised players large commissions, featured a number of alluring real-money games, and presented itself as a “golden investment” possibility.
But as soon as payments were made, this façade collapsed, the report added, with the app going black and leaving investors trapped without a method to get their money back.
The FBI claimed to have discovered the app’s purportedly unlawful actions in 2022 and to have discovered that some of the illicit proceeds had been placed in digital assets.
It stated that some 2,500 fraudulent or mule bank accounts had been found.
The organization claimed to have contacted cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, ZebPay, and WazirX to obtain information on the wallets used in this case.
“Information gathered from Binance and other exchanges led to the freezing of funds totalling nearly ₹ 90 crore available in 70 accounts, maintained with Binance, ZebPay and WazirX holding funds, which were linked to the scam,” it said.
The agency had arrested two people – “mastermind” Aamir Khan and Romen Agarwal and also has filed a charge sheet in the case.
In this instance, it has frozen, attached, and confiscated assets totaling ₹ 163 crore, including cash, cryptocurrency, bank account balances, and some offices.
You might also be interested in –Bitcoin price surpasses $40,000 as crypto hits all-time high since May 2022
