In the last eight months, 3,300 cryptocurrencies were suspected of being used for money laundering, drug trafficking and other illegal activities, such as financing social unrest, according to India's Financial Intelligence Unit FIU. The information was received from the agency and is now available for other law enforcement organisations and criptocurrencies exchanges in India and abroad.
According to a report by The Economic Times, FIU has recommended closing these accounts in addition to contacting global organisations.
India is part of the Egmont GroupEgmont Group, a global association of 166 nations' financial intelligence agencies.
The list has been handed over to the Enforcement Directorate, the Income Tax Department and the Central Bureau of Investigation in the last few months of April to November, a senior official said.
The enforcement agencies have already requested that they be closed in cases where the accounts were local and operated on India-based criptocurrency exchanges.
According to the official, the majority of these accounts' transactions were linked to drug trafficking, money laundering, child pornography and wildlife smuggling, with many of them dating back to 2019.
Three digital asset management companies are being investigated, and a thorough investigation helped in tracing some of these accounts.
The FIU also discovered transactions in which deposits of cryptocurrencies were made into accounts of people associated with social unrest and agitation, the official told ET.
The official said that 70 per cent of these accounts have already been blocked, and the remaining 30 per cent are either being closed or fall outside the purview of Indian law enforcement.
Enforcement agencies are working closely with international agencies, including Europol, Eurasian Group, Egmont and Interpol, as well as the Egmont GroupEgmont Group of FIUs, according to the official.