India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange WazirX has been served showcase notice by Enforcement Directorate (ED) on serious charges of facilitating money laundering. Although Techpluto does not have an access to the notice, reports claim that ED’s notice has signaled out WazirX for helping Chinese nationals in laundering money from Indian shores. The transaction that the ED is trying to investigate is worth INR 2790.74 Cr.
ED’s showcase notice to WazirX is part of its ongoing investigation against Chinese betting app. This notice has been served under Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.
In the notice, ED has claimed that owners of Chinese betting app converted INR 57 crore into cryptocurrency on WazirX platform and then transferred these cryptos to Binance account based in the Cayman Islands. As mentioned above, ED has claimed that the entire transaction is worth INR 2790.74 Cr.
None of the transactions facilitated by Chinese citizens has been recorded on any blockchain network and hence the transaction can’t be audited, ED said in the notice. The Enforcement Directorate has further added WazirX does not collect any requisite documents to facilitate such transactions and deemed this to be a violation of the FEMA guidelines.
WazirX denies getting any ED notice
Despite several media reports claiming that India’s leading cryptocurrency exchange has been served ED notice, WazirX has outrightly denied such claims. The platform maintains that it has not received any showcase notice from ED and has always provided information to law information agencies whenever required.
The platform also added “it can trace all users on its platform with identity information. Should we receive formal notice from ED, we’ll fully cooperate with the agency.
For many years, the cryptocurrency industry has been accused of facilitating money laundering and the latest WazriX fiasco will only add more fuel to theis fire.