ED freezes WazirX director's bank accounts worth Rs 64.70 crore following raids

The ED’s investigation against WazirX has also established a link between the same ongoing investigation against a number of Chinese loan apps
ED freezes crypto exchange WazirX director's bank accounts worth Rs 64 crore following raids

ED freezes crypto exchange WazirX director's bank accounts worth Rs 64 crore following raids

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at premises linked to cryptocurrency exchange WazirX director and froze bank assets worth Rs 64.67 crores reported ANI. The development came after the ED issued a notice to the exchange under the FEMA Act.
The ED’s investigation against the exchange has also established a link between the same ongoing investigation against a number of Chinese loan apps. The ED said that the accused used instant loan app companies in laundering money via sale and purchase of virtual crypto assets.
It was reported that the investigative agency conducted the raids on August 3 as one of the directors of WazirX was not cooperating with the investigation.
Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in a written reply to Rajya Sabha on Wednesday said that the probe agency is investigating two cases against WazirX under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).
In a written response, he said, “in one of the cases, investigation done so far has revealed that one Indian cryptocurrency exchange platform, Wazirx, operated by Zanmai Labs Private Limited in India was using the walled infrastructure of Cayman Island based exchange BINANCE. Further it has been found that all crypto transactions between these two exchanges were not even being recorded on the blockchains and were thus cloaked in mystery."
According to Economic Times, Sameer Mhatre, Director, WazirX was found to have complete remote access to the database of the crypto exchange but did not provide transactional details related to crypto assets purchased from the proceeds of an instant loan app.
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