India’s Enforcement Administration (ED), the country’s financial crime agency, has accused WazirX of conducting illegal crypto-asset transactions and money laundering.
Indian law enforcement officials have reported that WazirX co-founders Nischal Shetty and Sameer Hanuman Mhatre have been charged with illegal transactions totaling Rs 27.9 billion (about $ 381 million).
In addition, some Chinese citizens managed to launder 570 million rupees (about $ 7.8 million) of criminal proceeds through WazirX, which were converted into USDT stablecoins and then transferred to Binance wallets. As a reminder, the WazirX platform was acquired by the Binance exchange in 2019.
India’s Financial Crimes Agency said WazirX does not ask users for any documents. This violates anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regulations and the Indian Foreign Exchange Act (FEMA).
WazirX customers can transfer cryptocurrencies to anyone, regardless of location, without proper identity checks. This makes the exchange a haven for money launderers. The management of WazirX has denied these claims and said that the exchange has not yet received any official notices.
“WazirX complies with all applicable laws. We go beyond KYC and AML procedures, providing information to law enforcement agencies as needed. If we receive an official notification of the beginning of the investigation, we will assist the investigation, “- stated See the WazirX manual.
Binance is also coming under scrutiny from regulators. So, in March, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) began to investigate the exchange’s activities, suspecting it of violating US law. In addition, Silvergate recently stopped serving Binance accounts.
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