By Fiona Mehta
The cryptocurrency exchange companies, CoinSwitch and CoinDCX, have received letters from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is continuing its investigation into cryptocurrency businesses, after it was claimed that they slipped past the central organization’s radar. According to News18 sources, summonses have been sent to the officers of each cryptocurrency company. This comes one year after ZebPay was cited by the investigating division for breaking international money transfer laws.
According to the aforementioned sources, the ED has issued notices against CoinSwitch and other companies for allegedly violating the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). The investigation firm is aiming to ascertain whether these businesses are infringing on FEMA regulations and whether they are involved in transnational environmental crimes. Despite this, CoinDCX stated that there have been no complaints filed against the platform.
Following preliminary investigations, ED investigators have sent summonses for interviews to each of the cryptocurrency exchange companies. The sources also mentioned that the central corporation asked each business for information on a number of occasions. The investigating team at the ED has also requested other papers from these crypto international money exchange organisations. The investigation company’s Bengaluru department has sent out the summons.
“We get inquiries from different governmental organisations. We have always taken a transparent approach. We always communicate with all stakeholders because cryptocurrency is still in its infancy and has a lot of potential, a CoinSwitch spokeswoman said, confirming that they, too, had received letters.
The ED has sent notifications to important exchanges in India demanding information and data on how platforms work, according to a press release cited by IANS from a cryptocurrency exchange. We have provided the department with the relevant information as requested, and we have no further action scheduled.
The ED asked the cryptocurrency exchange WazirX in June of last year to explain an alleged breach of the Foreign Exchange Management Act with cryptocurrency offers worth Rs 2,790.74 crore. “In the period under investigation, users of WazirX via its pool account have received incoming cryptocurrency worth Rs 880 crore from Binance accounts and transferred out cryptocurrency worth Rs 1,400 crore to Binance accounts. None of these transactions are available on the blockchain for audit or investigation,” the ED had alleged on the time.