Seized by India’s Directorate of Enforcement (ED), this is a significant crypto money laundering case linked to a gaming app. Coincident with the scandal, the government also confiscated crypto assets frozen at ₹90 crore ($10 million).
The seventy accounts connected to the big cryptocurrency wallets Binance, ZebPay, and WazirX had frozen cryptos, according to the department’s news statement from Tuesday.
Reportedly, the software, “E-Nugget,” attracted players by pretending to be a gaming platform and offering them double returns on investment.
According to ED, users were unable to withdraw payments since E-Nugget suddenly suspended operations.
After the ED found that some of the funds were put in digital assets, the investigation reportedly started in 2022, according to local sources. The enquiry also found that around 2,500 fraudulent bank accounts were examined, leading to the confiscation of ₹19 crore, or $2.27 million.
The enquiry led to the arrest of Amir Khan, the scam’s mastermind, who is now in the custody of the court.
In November 2022, ED requested that Binance seize 150.22 bitcoins associated with E-Nugget, which were worth $2.5 million at the time. As of 2022, the ED said that the case’s confiscated assets were worth a total of $8.4 million.
These latest arrests follow five others made in September in Kolkata in connection to the gambling app, which led to the confiscation. Police said that the kingpin, Khan, was reportedly hiding away outside of India at the moment.
During that period, the police in Kolkata conducted searches and confiscated a number of SIM boxes. A municipal office was the victim of a theft that included over 3,000 ATM and debit cards, computers, and over 2,000 SIM cards. When it comes to retail cryptocurrency adoption, India is right up there with the best of them in recent years.