Five premises of leading crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber were searched on Thursday by the Enforcement Directorate for alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations.
ED said that they recently conducted search operations on 12 entities in Bengaluru having Chinese links and seized around Rs 5.85 crore.(Filg
Five premises of leading crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber were searched on Thursday by the Enforcement Directorate for alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations.
Besides this the residences of directors, the CEO, and the official properties were also searched, Coindesk reported, quoting an ED official.
A company spokesperson told IANS that they receive queries from various government agencies.
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“Our approach has always been that of transparency. Crypto is an early-stage industry with a lot of potential and we continuously engage with all stakeholders,” the spokesperson added.
According to reports, the ED is looking into “multiple possible contraventions under FEMA and other entities that are connected to CoinSwitch”.
The financial law enforcement agency is trying to crack down on the predatory lending practices under which as many as 10 crypto exchange companies are under the ED radar for their alleged involvement in money laundering of around Rs 10 billion.
The company, like several other players offering crypto services in India, was summoned by the ED in July, “seeking certain information/documents”.
Other Crypto companies’ assets worth crores were also frozen. Recently, many lending apps and crypto exchange companies’ assets were frozen by the agency.
The ED conducted searches at various premises of Yellow Tune Technologies Pvt Ltd in Bengaluru and froze assets belonging to Flipvolt crypto exchange which runs the Darshan Bathija-led Vauld.
Crypto lending platform Vauld’s bank assets worth Rs 370 crore were also frozen over its “predatory lending practices” by the ED.
The ED had on August 5 conducted searches on the premises of one of the Directors of Zanmai Lab Pvt Ltd, which owns the popular cryptocurrency exchange WazirX and issued an order to freeze their bank balances to the tune of Rs 64.67 crore.
(With inputs from IANS)
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