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WazirX to resume banking operations normally after ED releases frozen bank accounts

In August this year, ED said it had conducted searches on one of the directors of Zambia Lab Pvt Ltd, which operates WazirX and had issued an order to freeze funds amounting to Rs 64.67 crore in various accounts of the company.

ET Now Digital

Updated Sep 12, 2022, 15:32 IST

(Representational image) ED releases frozen bank accounts of WazirX

Photo : BCCL

WazirX in a blog post on Monday said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has unfrozen its bank accounts. The federal financial-crime investigation agency launched a probe last year against the cryptocurrency trading platform for alleged violations of foreign exchange rules and froze the company’s bank accounts.

In August this year, the agency said it had conducted searches on one of the directors of Zambia Lab Pvt Ltd, which operates WazirX and had issued an order to freeze funds amounting to Rs 64.67 crore in various accounts of the company.

The investigation was part of ED’s crackdown on 16 fintech companies and illegal loan apps—some of which happened to use WazirX platform, the company said in a statement.

The world’s largest digital currency exchange Binance-linked cryptocurrency platform further said it has been “cooperating with the investigators and providing them with all the necessary details, information, and documents of the alleged accused companies who used the WazirX platform”.

The company further said it has no association with any alleged accused fintech and instant loan app entities which are being investigated by the ED.

“The company further clarified that it has no association with any of the alleged accused Fintech and Instant loan app entities which appear to be the subject of ED investigation, and is carrying out the KYC/AML checks despite having no legal obligation to do so. WazirX is like any other intermediary whose platform may have been misused,” the blog post read.

WazirX further said that most of the users on its platform being probed by the ED were already flagged by the company as “suspicious”.

“After an in-depth internal investigation, WazirX noticed that most of the users whose information was sought by ED were already identified as suspicious by WazirX internally and were blocked in 2020-2021,” the statement added.

The blog post further mentioned that now that ED has unfrozen the bank accounts, the company can being its banking operations as usual.

“Due to the active cooperation extended by WazirX and active Anti-money laundering (AML) checks that led to the blocking of suspicious accounts, ED has unfrozen the bank accounts of WazirX. WazirX is now in a position to continue its banking operations as usual.”

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