The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken WinZO co-founders Saumya Singh Rathore and Paavan Nanda into custody over alleged money laundering activities. They were called to the ED’s Bengaluru office on November 26 and detained after questioning, with a local court granting one-day custody. They are expected to appear again for further proceedings.
Earlier this month, ED had raided four WinZO offices in Delhi and Gurugram and froze assets worth ₹505 crore, including bank balances, bonds, fixed deposits, and mutual funds under Section 17(1A) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Investigations revealed that WinZO allegedly misled customers into playing real-money games using software or algorithms without disclosure and restricted withdrawals, leaving around ₹43 crore unpaid, despite the ban on such games since August 22.
The probe also uncovered WinZO operating real-money games for international markets like Brazil, the U.S., and Germany via the Indian platform, with $55 million parked in a U.S. account under WinZO US Inc, controlled from India.
ED has also frozen eight accounts linked to Gameskraft and Nirdesa Networks (Pocket52), holding approximately ₹18.75 crore. WinZO has stated it is fully cooperating and remains committed to user protection and legal compliance.
