India Freezes Some Bitcoin Accounts
The administration of India's Economic Intelligence Agency (ED) announced Thursday that it has frozen 44.5 bitcoin under the country's Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
ED is a statutory body and economic intelligence agency of the Government of India.
The official ED Twitter account tweeted:
ED conducted a search of two buildings in Kolkata and confiscated cash worth Rs 1.65 kronor, froze 44.5 bitcoins (equivalent to Rs 7.12 kroner) and other documents incriminating criminals under PMLA, in connection with the ongoing investigation into the mobile gaming app E-NUGGETS.
The authority stated:
Aamir Khan, son of Nassar Ahmad Khan, has launched a mobile gaming app, E-NUGGETS, which was designed with the purpose of fraud… Multiple accounts (more than 300) were exposed for money laundering.
Prior to Thursday's announcement, the ED had already frozen cryptocurrencies related to an electronic application investigation multiple times.
On September 28, the ED informed that it had frozen 77 bitcoins in a cryptocurrency trading platform.
The power then froze more bitcoin.
In its announcement on September 30, the ED said that a total of 85 bitcoins, equivalent to $1,600,000 (equivalent to approximately 13.56 kroner according to the market exchange rate) held on the Binance trading platform, have been frozen.
The ED has also frozen WRX (the digital currency of Indian crypto exchange Wazirx) and some stablecoins (USDT) equivalent to Rs 47.64 in Wazirx accounts related to the E-nuggets case.
Last Thursday, the ED Authority's management told:
During the investigations carried out under the PMLA so far, a total amount of SEK 51.16 has been seized/frozen in this case.
