The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday raided the premises of one of the directors of Zanmai Labs Private Limited, which owns the WazirX cryptoexchange, on charges of violating the FEMA Act and froze its bank balances worth Rs 64.67 crore.
According to media reports, ED officials searched the premises of one of the directors of Zanmai Labs Private Limited, which owns WazirX.
The ED action comes after Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary on Wednesday told Rajya Sabha that the agency served a notice to WazirX under the FEMA Act.
According to PTI, Chaudhary told Parliament that the ED is probing WazirX in two cases related to the violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).
The probe is also reportedly linked to the agency’s investigation into several Chinese loan apps operating in India.
The report citing Chaudhary’s written response to Parliament said that in one of the investigations it was found that WazirX used a “walled infrastructure of Cayman Island-based exchange BINANCE”. It has been found that the blockchains had no record of transactions between the two exchanges, he said.
Meanwhile, WazirX has denied claims that it has been served with a notice for money laundering. The reply came after a PTI report cited the minister’s remarks that WazirX has been served with a show cause notice for illegally allowing remittance in crypto assets worth Rs 2,790 crore to unknown wallets.
In his written response to Parliament, the minister also reportedly said that WazirX has accepted foreign users’ requests to convert cryptos on its platform.
