ED raids director of WazirX, freezes Rs 64.67 cr bank balance

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches on one of the directors of Zanmai Labs Private Limited which owns the popular cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, issues a freezing order to freeze their bank balances to the tune of Rs 64.67 crore, the media reported.

This development comes after the ED served crypto exchange WazirX a notice under the FEMA Act, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Notably, the agency’s probe against the crypto exchange is reportedly linked to its ongoing investigation against a number of Chinese loan apps (mobile applications) working in India. The ED is investigating two cases related to crypto-currency against WazirX under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA), he said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, as per a report.

Chaudhary said, “in one of the cases, investigation done so far has revealed that one Indian cryptocurrency exchange platform, Wazirx, operated by Zanmai Labs Private Limited in India was using the walled infrastructure of Cayman Island based exchange Binance. Further it has been found all crypto transactions between these two exchanges were not even being recorded on the blockchains and were thus cloaked in mystery.”