WinZO Real money App: ED has arrested Saumya Singh Rathore and Pawan Nanda, co-founders of real-money gaming platform WinZO, on money laundering charges. Officials said that both were called for questioning at the ED’s Bengaluru office on November 26, after which they were taken into custody. A local court later sent him to one-day custody.
The arrest comes after the ED conducted searches at four WinZO locations in Delhi and Gurugram earlier this month. The ED had seized assets worth ₹505 crore in the form of bank balances, bonds, fixed deposits and mutual funds under Section 17 (1A) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The company was involved in illegal activities
On November 24, the ED had said that its investigation had found that WinZO was involved in ‘illegal activities and dishonest practices’. The investigating agency alleged that customers were induced to play real-money games without informing them that they were playing with algorithms or software and not with people. The investigation also revealed that Winzo banned or limited customers’ withdrawal of money. According to the agency, despite real money games being banned from August 2022, the company has still not refunded approximately ₹43 crore to customers.
Shell company is suspected
The ED, in its investigation, found that Winzo was operating real money games in markets such as Brazil, the United States and Germany from India using the same platform as its Indian entity. WinZO US Inc. Approximately $55 million (₹489.90 crore) is kept in a United States bank account in the name of. The ED has described it as a shell company as all its operations, daily activities and bank account management are handled from India.
What is the company’s statement?
Despite the ED action, WinZO had said in a statement on November 24 that the company is ‘fully cooperating with the investigating agency and will continue to cooperate in the process.’ Let us inform that apart from Winzo, ED has also frozen eight bank accounts linked to Gamescraft and Nirdesa Networks (Pocket52), which had approximately ₹ 18.75 crore.