- India’s Enforcement Directorate raided properties related to a director of WazirX, a crypto alternate owned by Binance.
- The alternate is accused of serving to 16 fintech companies launder cash by means of crypto transactions.
- Authorities froze $8.16 million of the alternate’s funds, based on Reuters.
India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), the nation’s monetary regulator, raided properties related to a director of Binance-owned crypto alternate WazirX, alleging the corporate assisted in fraud and cash laundering.
WazirX is India’s largest crypto alternate and was acquired by Binance in 2019. Regulators have performed a search of properties associated to Sameer Mhatre, a director at WazirX, and have now frozen $8.16 million of the alternate’s funds, based on Reuters.
Scrutiny over WazirX comes amid a crackdown on India’s fintech scene, with ongoing investigations in corporations that use “predatory lending practices,” the ED stated in a statement on Friday. Currently, regulators have recognized 16 Indian-based fintech companies they believe of buying crypto belongings to launder their cash abroad.
When WazirX was requested concerning the exercise, regulators stated the crypto alternate was uncooperative.
“They are giving contradictory and ambiguous answers to evade oversight by Indian regulatory agencies,” the ED stated, noting that the alternate failed to present data on related transactions to regulators when requested on a number of events.
The firm additionally claimed that they did not even document particulars of funds that flowed into the alternate till July 2020, regulators stated, including that the “non-cooperative stand” of Mhatre led them to go looking his associated properties.
It’s not the primary time WazirX has been accused wrongdoing. Last yr, the ED discovered that the alternate laundered 570 million rupees by changing them into cryptocurrencies on Binance, based on Reuters.
