ED arrests gaming platform WinZO’s founder duo on money laundering charges

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested online money gaming platform WinZO founders — Saumya Singh Rathore and Paavan Nanda — on money laundering charges, officials said Thursday. They were arrested in Bengaluru on Wednesday following their questioning at the zonal office of the federal probe agency, they said.

The two were produced before a local court in Bengaluru the same night, and were sent to one-day custody by the court. They are expected to be produced again before the court for a detailed order, as per officials. The ED, in a statement, said that funds to the tune of Rs 43 crore of gamers were “held” by the company and that these monies should ideally have been refunded to players after India banned real-money gaming. The ED had raided the premises of WinZO and Gamezkraft, another company offering online gaming, and their promoters last week under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED had accused WinZO of “engaging in criminal activities and unscrupulous practices as customers were made to play with algorithms without being made aware of the fact that they are playing with the software and not with humans in real-money games.”