WazirX Exchange is accused by Indian law enforcement of helping to launder $130 million.

The department in charge of combating financial crimes in India, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), is investigating cryptocurrency exchanges that may have handled transfers from companies under investigation to foreign wallets totaling more than 10 billion rupees, or roughly $130 million.

According to a representative who talked with The Economic Times, at least ten cryptocurrency exchanges are allegedly implicated, and WazirX's bank accounts have been seized.

Companies under investigation in a case involving rapid loans allegedly executed transactions totaling up to 1 billion rupees ($1.3 million) in the names of individuals with no relation to the money.

These businesses frequently had ties to China. The transactions were revealed to be suspicious by Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering (KYC/AML) processes, but no increased due diligence was carried out and no suspicious transaction notifications were submitted to the ED, according to the agency.

Last week, the ED allegedly claimed that the exchange had helped approximately 16 fintech companies under investigation for money laundering. The ED froze WazirX bank accounts, which had about 647 million rupees, or $8.1 million.

In a blog post published on Tuesday, WazirX declared that all users are subject to KYC/AML procedures and the exchange fully cooperates with law enforcement. It claimed that the statement was made "on behalf of Zanmai Labs Pvt. Ltd.," which it said works with WazirX and Binance.

The blog post stated, "For every transaction, we are able to create the KYC details of the relevant user."

Due to the allegations against WazirX, people are now aware of Binance's involvement in the company's mysterious ownership structure.

Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the CEO of Binance, stated on August 5 that his business had not completed the acquisition of WazirX that had been announced in 2019.

The following day, CZ said, "We requested for transferring of WazirX system source code, deployment, and operations as recently as February this year," in a conversation with WazirX cofounder Nischal Shetty.

WazirX objected to this. The systems are NOT under the control of Binance.

It's not the first time WazirX has been criticized of having insufficient anti-money laundering procedures.

The ED accused WazirX of laundering illegal online gambling earnings in 2021; WazirX also had ties to China.

Comments

North Korean hackers are using almost 500 phishing domains to steal NFTs.

The hackers made fake websites that looked like NFT projects, NFT marketplaces, and even a DeFi platform. Hackers with ties to North Korea's Lazarus Group are said to be behind a massive phishing campaign that targets investors in nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The campaign uses nearly 500 phishing domains to trick people into giving away their personal information. SlowMist, a blockchain security company, released a report on December 24 that showed the methods that North Korean Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups have used to trick NFT investors out of their NFTs. These methods include putting up fake websites that look like different platforms and projects related to NFTs. Some of these fake websites include one that pretends to be a World Cup project and others that try to look like popular NFT marketplaces like OpenSea, X2Y2, and Rarible. SlowMist said that one of the methods was for these fake websites to offer "malicious mints," which trick the victims into thinkin...

Dar predicts economic growth

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar declared Saturday that Pakistan will not default despite opposition propaganda. "Pakistan won't default on opposition propaganda" (Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf). Mr. Dar told businessmen that the government isn't headed for default. Imran Khan and other PTI officials anticipate Pakistan will default due to PML-"bad N's policies." Mr. Khan believes the economy can only be stabilized with new elections and a stable government. Mr. Dar said the opposition hurts the country's economy. The opposition also spreads corruption rumors to deter foreign investment. The PTI should not meddle with the economy, he said. The minister lamented his treatment during the past PML administration. "I was a terrorist." My transgression was improving the country's economy. Mr. Dar spent five years in self-exile in the UK. He criticized the PTI and PML-N for devaluing the currency. Rupee devaluation During Shahid Khaqan Abbasi's tenu...

Brazil's Federal Revenue Requires Citizens To Pay Taxes On Crypto Trades

The Federal Revenue of Brazil wants investors to pay taxes on cryptocurrency trading profits, even if there is no exchange for Brazil's national currency. Brazil's Federal Reserve (RFB) has declared that Brazilian investors in the crypto-asset market must pay income tax on transactions that involve the like-kind exchange of cryptocurrencies; for example, Bitcoin (BTC) for Ethereum (ETH). The RFB's declaration was published in the Diário Oficial da União and was the result of a consultation made by a citizen of the country with the regulator. At the end of last year, the group issued an opinion in which it claimed that trading between cryptocurrency pairs is taxable even if there is no conversion to the real (Brazil's national currency). Although it does not specify what can be understood as "profit," since in the exchange of one crypto asset for another there is no capital gain in fiat currency, it points out that there is, even so, the obligation to pay t...

Search This Blog