New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said it has attached $56 million (around Rs 470 crore) of deposits in foreign bank accounts in the US and Singapore, held in the names of alleged overseas shell companies of a money gaming app Winzo Pvt Ltd, operated and controlled by Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh Rathore. The total attachment in this case, allegedly involving laundering of more than Rs 3,500 crore by promoters, is now around Rs 1,200 crore. The shell companies identified are Winzo US Inc, USA and Winzo SG Pte Ltd, Singapore, both controlled by Nanda and Saumya Rathore. “Investigation revealed that the company was engaged in criminal activities and unscrupulous practices i.e. customers were made to play with BOTs/AI/algorithms/software (termed as PPP/EP/Persona) without being made aware of this fact, in real money games. Winzo has also prevented/limited withdrawals of monies held by the customers in the Winzo wallets,” the agency has said. The agency further stated that Winzo Pvt Ltd generated proceeds of crime in the form of ‘Rake Commission’ from the matches played by the BOTs with the real players on their Winzo app. “By using the BOTs and a restrictive environment in withdrawing the funds, the users were induced to play more and more matches,” ED said. In this manner, the company has derived total proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 3,522 crore, between 2021 to 2025, the agency added.
