ED attaches ₹505 crore Held Abroad In WinZO Money-Laundering Case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has temporarily seized ₹505 crore ($55.7 million) held by gaming startup winzo Datalabs in foreign bank accounts in the US and Singapore, adding to ongoing regulatory scrutiny of the company.

This seizure is part of the ED’s ongoing money-laundering investigation into the online gaming platform.

According to the ED, the funds were held in accounts under overseas shell companies—WinZO US Inc and WinZO SG Pte Ltd in Singapore—controlled from India by WinZO cofounders Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh Rathore.

The ED said it had previously carried out search and seizure operations at WinZO’s offices and at the home of one of its directors in November 2025, followed by raids at the company’s accounting firm in December.

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The ED stated that evidence from the investigation suggests the startup allegedly used bots and algorithm-driven accounts to play against real users in paid games without informing them. The agency also claimed that the company restricted or delayed withdrawals from user wallets, encouraging players to keep gaming.

The ED had recently filed a prosecution complaint accusing WinZO of large-scale game manipulation and laundering crime proceeds. The agency alleged that players were first enticed with small bonuses and early wins, then systematically matched against tougher bots, leading to significant losses.

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The ED had earlier estimated that genuine users lost around ₹734 crore due to bot-driven gameplay. With the latest attachment, the total value of assets frozen in the case now stands at about ₹1,194 crore.

Investigators allege that WinZO earned illegal profits through rake commissions on matches between bots and human players. By combining automated gameplay with withdrawal restrictions, the agency said, user deposits were systematically turned into company revenue.

So far, the ED has frozen or attached movable assets worth around ₹689 crore including the funds held overseas. The agency said some of the alleged proceeds were sent abroad as foreign investments, even though the accounts were controlled from India.

The case began when the ED arrested WinZO cofounders under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in November 2025. Between November 18 and 22, 2025, the agency conducted searches at four locations in Delhi and Gurugram, carried out by its Bengaluru zonal office, targeting sites linked to the startup.

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