Indian Regulatory Agency Freezes 77.6 BTC Sent to Binance on Fraud Suspicion

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), the Indian government’s law enforcement and economic intelligence agency, recently announced that it has frozen 77.62710139 Bitcoins based on dictates from the country’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The crypto confiscation comes amid an investigation by the ED into E-nuggets, a mobile gaming app. According to the report, the frozen BTC tokens originated from Wazirx to Binance. The regulatory organization made the development known through a tweet posted on September 28.

ED has freezed crypto currencies, 77.62710139 Bitcoins worth Rs 12.83 Cr. approx. under PMLA, 2002, in respect to an investigation conducted against one Aamir Khan & others relating to the Mobile Gamming App., namely E-nuggets. Earlier, ED had seized Rs. 17.32 Cr cash in the case

— ED (@dir_ed) September 28, 2022

Indian ED Reveals Findings from Its Investigations

The agency explained that “Aamir Khan, S/o Nesar Ahmed Khan launched a mobile gaming application namely E-Nuggets, which was designed for the purpose of defrauding [the] public,” adding:

“After collecting a sizable amount of money from the public, all of a sudden withdrawal from the said app was stopped on one pretext or the other. Thereafter, all data including profile information was wiped off from the said app servers.”

The organization revealed in its report that the accused, Aamir Khan, transferred a portion of the illegally acquired funds overseas via Wazirx. The ED further noted that its investigations revealed that the accused opened a dummy account under the false name of “Sima Naskar (Proprietor of M/s Pixal Design),” with the Indian crypto exchange and used it to purchase more cryptocurrencies. The agency elaborated:

“Thereafter, the said cryptocurrencies were further transferred to another account in another crypto exchange, namely Binance.”

ED wrote on Wednesday: “The balance of said transferred cryptocurrencies i.e. 77.62710139 bitcoins [equivalent to USD 1,573,466 (Rs 12.83 crore approximately)] at Binance crypto exchange has been [frozen].”