The Binance in India has been frozen due to an investigation involving the cryptocurrency exchange Wazirx.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) of India has frozen more than 77.6 bitcoins transferred to Binance from the Indian cryptocurrency exchange Wazirx. The freeze is part of an investigation into whether or not a mobile game app was used to launder money.
The Indian government has frozen Bitcoin held at the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) of India announced on Wednesday that it had frozen 77.62710139 bitcoins in accordance with the country’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED is the law enforcement and economic intelligence agency of the Indian government. The freeze is part of the ED’s investigation into E-nuggets, a mobile gaming app. The cryptocurrency was transferred from Wazirx, a popular Indian exchange, to Binance, according to the announcement. In addition, the ED tweeted a summary of its action.ย
According to the law enforcement agency, “Aamir Khan, S/o Nesar Ahmed Khan, launched a mobile gaming application titled E-Nuggets, which was designed for the purpose of defrauding [the] public,” and that “Aamir Khan, S/o Nesar Ahmed Khan, launched a mobile gaming application titled E-Nuggets, which was designed for the purpose of defrauding [the] public.”
โFor some reason or another, after collecting a sizable sum of money from the general public, withdrawals from the said app were abruptly halted. Following that, all data, including profile information, was deleted from the aforementioned app serversโ.
The ED says that its investigation showed that the accused sent some of the money he got illegally to another country through the Indian cryptocurrency exchange Wazirx.
According to the ED, the accused allegedly opened a dummy account with Wazirx in the name of “Sima Naskar (Proprietor of M/s Pixal Design)” and used it to purchase cryptocurrencies.
After that, the above-mentioned crypto currencies were moved to an account on Binance, which is another cryptocurrency exchange.
โThe ED wrote, “The balance of said transferred cryptocurrencies, i.e., 77.62710139 bitcoins [equivalent to USD 1,573,466 (approximately Rs 12.83 crore)] at the Binance crypto exchange has been frozen.”
Binance was thought to have purchased Wazirx in 2019. But Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said that the purchase “was never finished” and that “Binance has never owned any shares of Zanmai Labs, the company that runs Wazirx, at any time.”
In August, the ED froze Wazirx’s bank assets worth more than $8 million. Wazirx, on the other hand, announced earlier this month that its bank accounts had been unfrozen. The ED froze $46 million in crypto and bank assets of Vauld, a crypto platform backed by Peter Thiel. The agency searched the cryptocurrency exchange Coinswitch Kuber in August. But the CEO of the exchange said it had nothing to do with investigations into money laundering.