Regulation
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According to an official press release, the Enforcement Authority of India (ED) has frozen approximately 128 million local rupees ($1.5 million) worth of Bitcoin (BTC) digital assets as part of a money laundering and fraud investigation. This case was related to the cryptocurrency gaming application E-nuggets. According to the Agency, the criminals carried out illegal operations in cooperation with Chinese citizens.
The investigation began after regulators in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata filed a formal complaint against Amir Khan and his alleged associates. The investigation lasted approximately 1.5 years. In early September 2022, ED agents initiated searches at 6 locations where wads of cash worth more than 170 million Indian rupees ($2 million) were found.
The management of the organization assured that Khan, along with accomplices, launched a gaming application to deceive users by collecting their cryptocurrency assets, and then freezing the withdrawal of funds under various pretexts. Ultimately, the head of the company deleted all data and software, later hiding in an unknown direction.
According to ED, the defendant transferred most of the funds abroad using some cryptocurrency exchanges. Presumably, he acted jointly with colleagues from China.
It was stated that one fictitious account was opened on the Indian trading platform WazirX, from where the purchased cryptocurrency was transferred to the wallet of the Binance account. The balance of 77.6 BTC is frozen by law enforcement officers.
Earlier, the editors of Crypto.ru reported that the Indian cryptocurrency market was under threat. We are talking about the fact that in connection with the possible introduction of taxation in the amount of 30% of the profits from the sale of cryptocurrencies, it can alienate many from the industry.
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