WazirX: ED raids WazirX director's premises, accounts frozen

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has raided the premises of Sameer Mhatre, director of the WazirX cryptocurrency exchange. The ED has also frozen their accounts. It is being told that an amount of Rs 64.67 crore lying in their accounts has been frozen.

The director of the company is alleged to have helped accused instant loan app companies of money laundering fraudulently through the purchase and transfer of crypto assets.

The federal agency said it conducted raids in Hyderabad on August 3 against a director of Janmai Lab Pvt Ltd, which owns the WazirX cryptocurrency exchange. The ED has also said that they were not cooperating during the raids.

Accused of helping China's loan app companies

This action of the ED (Enforcement Directorate) against crypto exchange Wazirx is related to the ongoing investigation against several Chinese loan apps operating in India. The agency accused WazirX of alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) last year.

The ED has said that WazirX director Sameer Mhatre has full access to WazirX's database, but despite this, he is not providing data related to crypto transactions that have been purchased with the proceeds of the loan app fraud. . WazirX is accused of aiding the director of a cryptocurrency exchange accused loan app companies in money laundering fraudulently through the purchase and transfer of virtual crypto assets.

Violation of RBI guidelines

Let us tell you that the Enforcement Directorate is investigating all NBFC companies operating in the country and their fintech partners for violating the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and misuse of personal data and money laundering. These companies are accused of using abusive language to collect high-interest rates from borrowers using tele callers.

Let us tell you that after not getting the license related to lending business to many Chinese financed fintech companies in the country from RBI, they started their work by signing MoUs with the closed NBFC companies. When the investigation started in this case, many companies ran away from their business and hid the money earned.

Money laundering is done with the help of crypto exchange

The ED (Enforcement Directorate) in its investigation so far has found that these companies invested heavily in cryptocurrencies and transferred them abroad with the help of exchanges. There have also been many such proofs related to transactions in cryptocurrencies that were not even recorded in the blockchain of crypto. In such a situation, these virtual assets have not been traced yet.

In the same case, ED issued summons to crypto exchange WazirX. WazirX is alleged to have facilitated the transfer of crypto assets purchased on behalf of the accused companies to unknown foreign wallets.

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