Crypto Exchange Binance Might be Investigated for Money Laundering in India

Binance regulatory troubles continue as the cryptocurrency exchange might be investigated for association with money laundering of about $134 million dollars in India. The financial watchdog in the region is said to be currently investigating if the company had anything to do with the fraud.

According to the report by Bloomberg, the financial watchdog in India, the Enforcement Directorate is currently investigating mobile betting applications for collecting a sum of over 10 billion Indian Rupees equivalent to 134 million dollars. The money was said to have been laundered through WazirX, the largest exchange in India which was acquired by Binance some time in 2019.

See also:Appealing to Regulators, Binance launches a Tax Reporting Tool

WazirX was used by the Chinese betting apps operators “for buying, converting and transferring the money to wallets on Binance’s platform” as stated in the report. The exchange has been issued a show-cause notice by the Enforcement Directorate regarding its platform being used for money laundering.

However, the case is still under investigation as the top executives of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is said to have been summoned for questioning by the ED and they remain anonymous regarding the unclear situation of the issue.

The people aware of the case stated that Binance did not collect necessary KYC documents from the customers for the transactions and  that “The exchange also didn’t collect information detailed by global anti-money laundering watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for virtual currencies”.

Binance has been making news every week for a while because of its troubles with regulators all over. However, the company tried to appeal to regulators by trying to replace its Chief executive officer and also launching some tools such as the tax tool and reducing limits for withdrawals without KYC. Amidst all these, it still remains the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. 

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