The cryptocurrency accounts of Bengaluru-based Yellow Tune Technologies, a provider of financial services, have been blocked, according to a Friday announcement from India’s Directorate of Enforcement (ED). Flipvolt, the Indian division of Singapore’s Vauld, held some of the accounts. The action is related to an ongoing investigation into money laundering by instant loan companies with ties to China. The organisation has intervened in the cryptosphere in relation to that matter twice this week.
After determining that Yellow Tune was a shell company formed by two Chinese nationals using aliases, the financial watchdog declared it was freezing the company’s bank balances, payment gateway balances, and balances in the Flipvolt cryptocurrency exchange for a total of 3.7 billion rupees, or $46.4 million. Newspaper reports claim that the ED spent three days searching locations connected to Yellow Tunes.
The ED discovered 23 entities that had put money into Yellow Tune’s Flipvolt wallets before sending it elsewhere. The ED gave Flipvolt harsh criticism for how company handled the money. The agency further stated,
“Lax KYC [Know Your Customer] norms, loose regulatory control of allowing transfers to foreign wallets without asking any reason/declaration/KYC, non-recording of transactions on Blockchains to save costs etc, has ensured that Flipvolt is not able to give any account for the missing crypto assets. It has made no sincere efforts to trace these crypto assets.”
Cryptocurrency exchanges suspected by ED
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) of India is investigating cryptocurrency exchanges that may have handled transfers from companies under investigation to foreign wallets totaling more than 10 billion rupees, or nearly $130 million. ten cryptocurrency exchanges, at least, are apparently implicated.
However, local publications stated that WazirX, a cryptocurrency exchange, had its bank account suspended.
In a case involving rapid loans, it is claimed that organisations under investigation conducted transactions of up to 1 billion rupees ($1.3 million), or $1.3 million, in the names of individuals who had no relation to the money. These companies frequently had ties to China. Even though anti-money laundering and know your customer procedures indicated that the transactions were suspicious, neither enhanced due diligence nor suspicious transaction notifications were submitted to the ED.
Furthermore, WazirX bank accounts containing 647 million rupees ($8.1 million) were frozen by the ED. claiming that roughly 16 fintech companies under investigation for money laundering received assistance from the exchange.