After the Enforcement Directorate (ED) froze assets worth Rs 370 crore belonging to Vauld, the crypto lending platform has now issued a statement. Vauld stated that the freezing order of the ED is specific to that of one customer (Flipvolt Technologies) that availed its services for a brief period of time, and added that it ‘respectfully disagreed’ with the action.
“It is unfortunate that, despite extending our cooperation, the Enforcement Directorate has proceeded to pass a freezing order, pursuant to which crypto assets in the pool wallets of the company have ordered to be frozen to the extent of approximately INR 2040 million. The freezing order of the Enforcement Directorate is specific to that one customer that availed our services for a brief period of time, whose account we subsequently deactivated. We respectfully disagree with the freezing order,” Vauld said, asserting that it had fulfilled KYC requirements in all countries including India.
ED freezes ₹370 crore assets of crypto firm
On August 12, the ED conducted searches at various premises of Yellow Tune Technologies Private Limited in Bangalore and issued an order to freeze the company’s bank balances, payment gateway balances and crypto balances of Flipvolt crypto-currency exchange totalling Rs 370 crores worth of assets. Flipvolt Technologies is the India-registered entity of Vauld.
While doing a fund trail investigation, the federal agency found that a large amount of funds around Rs 370 Crore was deposited by 23 entities including accused NBFCs and their fintech firns into the INR wallets of Yellow Tune Technologies Pvt Ltd held with Crypto Exchange Flipvolt Technologies Pvt Ltd. The ED alleged that the frozen amount is the proceeds of crime derived from predatory lending practices.
ED said, “Lying with Flipvolt Crypto-exchange in the form of Bank and Payment Gateway Balances worth Rs 164.4 Crore and Crypto assets lying in their pool accounts worth Rs 203.26 Crore, are frozen under PMLA, 2002, till complete fund trail is provided by the crypto-exchange.”
The Cryptocurrency purchased was transferred to various unknown foreign wallet addresses. According to ED, the company’s promoters are untraceable. This development comes days after ED froze nearly Rs 65 crores worth of bank assets belonging to cryptocurrency exchange WazirX’s director Sameer Mhatre in connection with a money laundering investigation.