The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested a man Friday for allegedly using his cryptocurrency account to park illegal funds. A number of people are alleged to have been cheated by a Kolkata-based gaming app that’s been under investigation for money laundering.
“Romen Agarwal handles inter/Intra country money transfers from criminals both inside and outside the country. Basically, he arranges to park, route, and transfer funds generated from illegal activities. According to an ED spokesperson, he used crypto exchange accounts to park funds received from Aamir Khan, the main accused in the E-Nuggets App case. Kolkata’s special court sent Agarwal to ED custody until October 28.
In the case against E-Nuggets and its promoter Khan, the ED froze bitcoins worth Rs 7.12 crore and seized Rs 1.65 crore in cash.
The ED raided two premises in Kolkata and seized Rs 1.65 crore in cash, 44.5 bitcoins (equivalent to Rs 7.12 crore at market rates) and other incriminating documents, a statement said.
The ED raided the company’s offices and those of Khan and his father Nesar Ahmed Khan in Kolkata last month and seized Rs 17.32 crore in cash. Bitcoins and some bank deposits were frozen before this. “With the latest action, the total seizure amount in this case is 51.16 crores. According to the ED, 300 accounts were used to launder gamers’ money.
The detective department of the Kolkata Police arrested Khan last month from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. In February 2021, the Kolkata Police filed an FIR against the company and its promoters. Federal Bank authorities filed a complaint before a court in Kolkata, and the FIR was filed at Park Street police station,” the agency said.
Khan launched E-Nuggets, a gambling application designed to defraud innocent people. After collecting a lot of money from the public, withdrawals from the app were suddenly stopped on some pretext or another. Eventually, all data, including profile info, was wiped off the servers. The accused was using crypto currency exchanges to send part of the illegal earnings earned through the gaming app overseas.
