ED unfroze our accounts, WazirX says banking ops to resume
- ByStartupStory | September 12, 2022
The Enforcement Directorate unfroze the bank accounts of cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, it was announced by the website as an update. “Due to the active cooperation extended by WazirX and active Anti-money laundering (AML) checks that led to the blocking of suspicious accounts, ED has unfrozen the bank accounts of WazirX. WazirX is now in a position to continue its banking operations as usual,” the firm said.
Sixteen fintech companies who were using WazirX were under investigation, and it was told by the exchange that it had already frozen their accounts after suspicious activity was detected on their part in 2020 to 2021. Assets worth Rs 64.67 crores were frozen in August by the Enforcement Directorate in August. “These fintechs were Chinese-controlled digital lenders”, the ED had said.
In a press release at that time, the agency complained that WazirX’s company registrations were obscuring its ownership, and that its office was just a “2 chair” coworking space, with most employees working from home. Binance, which owns WazirX, rarely replied to legal requests sent to them, the agency further said, adding that WazirX was not letting the agency in on any information with suspicious transaction details.
“By encouraging obscurity and having lax AML norms, it has actively assisted around 16 accused fintech companies in laundering the proceeds of crime using the crypto route,” the ED had then said.
The agency’s claims were then denied by WazirX, saying it did not agree with the press release’s claims, and that it was cooperating with the authorities. Even though this is a relief for the company, WazirX has still been facing issues.
WazirX is a cryptocurrency platform designed to trade various digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin. The company’s platform offers heavy security and allows know-your-customer verification, for the cryptocurrency investors to find a secure way to find traders and manage their portfolios at the same time. It was founded by Nischal Shetty, Sameer Mhatre and Siddharth Menon in 2017.
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