The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached 77.62710139 Bitcoins valued at approximately ₹12.83 crore, suspecting the crypto currencies as proceeds of crime allegedly committed through mobile gaming app “E-Nuggets”.

The ED charged that E-Nuggets was used as a platform to defraud people, after it took up the investigation from the Kolkata’s Park Street Police, which registered an FIR on February 15 last year against Aamir Khan and others on the basis of a complaint filed by Federal Bank authorities.

Aamir Khan launched the mobile gaming application, E-Nuggets, and collected sizable amount of money from the public, said the ED. All of a sudden withdrawal from the app was stopped on one pretext or the other and subsequently, all data including profile information was wiped off from the E-nuggets, informed the ED.

The plot

The agency stated its investigation revealed that accused was transferring part of the amount illegally earned through the gaming app (E-Nuggets) to overseas by using Crypto Currency Exchange.

“It was found that one such dummy account in the name of Sima Naskar (Proprietor of M/s Pixal Design) was opened in the WazirX (crypto exchange), which was used to purchase the crypto currencies/crypto assets. Thereafter, the said crypto currencies were further transferred to another account in another Crypto Exchange namely ‘Binance’,” the ED revealed.

The balance of the transferred crypto currencies, which was 77.62710139 Bitcoins — equivalent to $15,73,466 or approximately ₹12.83 crore — parked at the Binance crypto exchange has been freezed by the ED.

This is in addition to ₹17.32 crore which was found and seized from Aamir Khan's residence during a search operation, stated the ED. Further probe is going on under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

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