WazirX says operations are as usual, says exchange

After the Directorate of Enforcement ED raided one of its directors and froze bank balances to a tune of Rs 64.67 crore, WazirX reiterated that the company's operations are as usual and that the bank's withdrawals are normally being processed.

In light of the news about WazirX, we wanted to assure you that operations are being conducted as usual, according to the exchange's tweet on Sunday evening.

On Saturday, the exchange said it was fully cooperating with the ED for several days and has responded fully and transparent to all their queries. The company said that it did not agree with the allegations slapped by the ED, and that it was evaluating a further plan of action. The enforcement agency on Friday said it searched on one of the directors of Zanmai Lab Pvt Ltd, which owns WazirX, and has issued the freezing order of their Bank balances.

A search operation was conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA on 3 August 2022 because of the non-cooperative stand of the Director of the WazirX exchange.

Sameer Mhatre, Director of WazirX, has complete remote access to the database of WazirX. He has not said anything about the transactions relating to the assets purchased from the proceeds of the crime of Instant Loan APP fraud.

Non-recording transactions onBlockchains to save costs, and non-recording of the KYC of the other wallets has ensured that WazirX is not allowed to give any account for the missing assets, due to the lax KYC norms and loose regulatory control of transactions between WazirX Binance.

It hasn't done anything to trace these assets. It has assisted around 16 accused fintech companies in laundering the proceeds of crime using the crypto route by encouraging obscurity and having lax AML norms.

The enforcement agency said equivalent movable assets to Rs 64.67 crore lying with WazirX were frozen under PMLA, 2002.

The enforcement agency has been involved in a Money Laundering investigation against several Indian non-banking finance companies NBFCs and their partners for predatory lending practices in violation of RBI guidelines and using abusive language to extort high interest rates from the loan takers.