India authorities freeze assets belonging to Vauld

Updated: 13 August 2022

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The India Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen up to $46.5 million owned by an offshoot firm of Vauld, Flipvolt Technology. The ED made this revelation on its Twitter page, citing Money Laundering as the reason for the move. According to the post, Vauld and its subsidiary in question are under stern investigation by the agency. As indicated, the funds sum up to about 3.70 billion Indian rupees.

The allegation includes Yellow Tune Technologies alongside Vauld and Flipvolt Technologies for initiating fraudulent transactions through the crypto exchange. As indicated by the ED, about 20 other organizations are under investigation due to their involvement in numerous illegal financial activities. The agency accused these firms of wiring crypto assets worth about 3.70 billion rupees into Yellow Tune’s address. Then, the firms collaborated to transfer the funds into an offshore wallet, bypassing protocols.

Further, the Enforcement Directorate illustrated that traces of the fraudulent transactions spur it into action. So far, the agency has lamented how the crypto exchange is making investigation quite tricky. According to the ED, the firm has refused to provide the needed information relating to the addresses that facilitated the transaction.

The crypto exchange declined to give details about the actual transfer made by Yellow Tune. The resistance of the Flipvolt technologies forced the agency to seize its assets. In addition, the ED vowed to hold the assets until the firm gives accurate details in response to the allegations.

The Enforcement Directorate has commenced the query of operations and compliance of notable Fintech organizations. The agency is pushing strongly to prosecute Fintech organizations that are operating outside the regulations of the Reserve Bank of India. India’s Enforcement Agency also added that the firms currently on its web had violated several regulatory stipulations.

The regulator has been under the spotlight within the crypto space for its activities in the past few weeks. Recall that the agency seized assets belonging to WazirX, a crypto exchange based in India. Just like Vauld and Flipvolt Technologies, the ED accused WarizX of violating a part of the country’s regulatory policy. According to the ED, WarizX aided loan companies in swapping their funds into crypto on its platform. The seized assets are worth about 646.70 million rupees, which equals about $8.16 million.

The action of the ED forced the unveiling of Binance’s relationship with the firm. Before then, the general assumption that the ownership of WazirX recognizes Binance as its owner due to an announcement that both companies made.

However, upon receiving the news about the frozen assets, the CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, disassociated Binance from WazirX. The CEO claimed that the takeover didn’t manifest fully, and the crypto exchange refused to hand over the firm’s administration to Binance.

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