India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) has unfrozen the bank accounts of cryptocurrency exchange Wazirx, the company said. The accounts were frozen as part of the federal agency’s investigation into 16 fintech companies and instant loan apps.
Wazirx Declares That Its Bank Accounts are Now Unfrozen
Wazirx, an Indian crypto exchange, stated Monday that India’s Enforcement Directorate had defroze its bank accounts. It is an economic and law enforcement agency.
According to the company, 16 instant loan app and fintech firms were being investigated by the ED. While emphasizing that Wazirx has “no association with any of the alleged accused fintech and instant loan app entities which appear to be the subject of ED investigation,” the crypto exchange acknowledged that some of these companies “have happened to use the Wazirx platform.”
The Indian crypto exchange stressed that it “has been cooperating with the investigators by providing them with all the necessary details, information, and documents of the alleged accused companies” that used its platform.
“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,” the crypto exchange detailed, elaborating:
Wazirx can now continue banking as normal.
Wazirx bank assets were frozen by the ED in August. The agency explained that the action was part of its money laundering investigation into non-bank financial companies (NBFC) and their fintech partners for “predatory lending practices” in violation of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines.
Wazirx clarified Monday, that an internal investigation had revealed the following:
Most users whose data was requested by ED had been identified internally as being suspicious and they were therefore blocked from 2020-2021.
The ED froze $46 Million of Vauld’s crypto- and bank assets, following Wazirx. Vauld is a cryptocurrency platform backed Peter Thiel. The agency also searched Coinswitch Kuber, a crypto exchange. But, Coinswitch Kuber’s CEO said it wasn’t related to money laundering probes.
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