The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen assets worth ₹370 crores held by Bengaluru-based firm Yellow Tune Technologies Private Limited.
Story so far: After carrying out criminal investigations, the ED has frozen assets in bank balances, payment gateway balances, and crypto balances of Flipvolt Cryptocurrency. Flipvolt is Singapore’s Vauld cryptocurrency exchange’s India-registered entity. The Bengaluru-based firm was allegedly being used by Chinese fintech apps to launder their India revenues.
- The ED said that the entire ₹370 crores seized was nothing but criminal proceeds gained from predatory lending practices.
- Although the Chinese people operating the fintech apps left the country in 2020, the bank credentials of dummy directors were used to launder money collected in India.
Loose regulatory control: The relaxed KYC norms, lack of mechanisms to track the source of funds, and no EDD mechanism of Flipvolt Crypto-Exchange made it easy for Chinese nationals to transfer money under the radar, avoiding regular banking channels. The fraudulent money was transferred in the form of crypto assets.