ED freezes bank accounts of WazirX worth Rs 64.67 crore

In a first, a crypto currency exchange here is being probed by a revenue enforcement agency in a money laundering case. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Friday said that it recently conducted searches on one of the directors of M/s Zanmai Lab Pvt Ltd which owns the popular crypto-currency exchange WazirX and has issued a freezing order to freeze their bank balances to the tune of Rs. 64.67 crores.

According to the agency,the exchange has ‘actively’ assisted around 16 fintech companies under investigation on charges of money laundering to divert their alleged proceeds of crime using the crypto route. The agency probe has found that the exchange has a complicated ownership structure making it ‘obscure’. The exchange was in alleged violation of KYC norms and has failed to conduct any enhanced due diligence (EDD) nor has raised any suspicious transaction reports (STRs). A STR is raised to the financial intelligence unit (FIU) when a reporting entity suspects or has reasonable grounds to suspect that funds are the proceeds of a criminal activity, or are related to terrorist financing,.