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ED seizes cryptocurrency worth Rs 90 crore in probe against online gaming app
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday seized Rs 90 crore from cryptocurrency wallets of exchanges including Binance, ZebPay and WazirX, in a money laundering probe linked to online gaming app ‘E-Nugget’.
The scam app, posing as a gaming platform, promised high returns to users. An FIR at Kolkata’s Park Street police station led to the ED case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The app’s façade collapsed after making investments, leaving investors stranded.
The ED exposed the app’s illegal activities in 2022, revealing that some of the illicit earnings were invested in digital assets. Approximately 2,500 fictitious bank accounts have been identified. The agency has frozen nearly Rs 90 crore in 70 accounts linked to the scam after gathering information from Binance and other exchanges.
Two persons, Aamir Khan and Romen Agarwal, have been arrested and a chargesheet has been filed. The agency has seized, attached or frozen a total of Rs 163 crore in assets in this case, including cash, cryptocurrencies, bank account balances and offices.