ED freezes Rs 505 crore held in US, Singapore bank accounts linked to WinZo

The Directorate of Enforcement, through its Bengaluru Zonal Office, has provisionally attached overseas bank balances worth $55.69 million, approximately Rs 505 crore, as part of its ongoing money laundering probe into real-money gaming platform Winzo.

In a press release dated February 18, 2026, the Enforcement Directorate said the attached movable properties comprise balances held in bank accounts in the United States and Singapore. The accounts are maintained in the names of Winzo’s overseas entities, Winzo US Inc., USA, and Winzo SG Pte. Ltd., Singapore. The agency has alleged that these entities are operated and controlled by the company’s founders, Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh Rathore.

The ED had earlier conducted search and seizure operations at the office premises of M/s Winzo Pvt. Ltd. on November 18, 2025. Searches were also carried out at the residential premises of its director and later at its accounting firm on December 30, 2025. Following the searches and subsequent investigation, a Prosecution Complaint was filed before the Hon’ble Special Court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, PMLA, Bengaluru, CCH-1, on January 23, 2026.

According to the agency, evidence unearthed during the searches indicated that the company engaged in what it described as criminal activities and unscrupulous practices. The ED has alleged that customers were made to play real-money games against BOTs, AI systems, algorithms or software, referred to as PPP, EP or Persona, without being informed that they were not playing against human participants.

The agency further alleged that Winzo prevented or limited withdrawals of funds held by customers in their wallets on the platform. It claimed that the company generated proceeds in the form of rake commission from matches played between BOTs and real users on the Winzo app. By deploying BOTs and creating what it termed a restrictive withdrawal environment, the ED said users were induced to play more matches. Through repeated gameplay under these conditions, users’ deposited amounts were progressively appropriated by the company as rake commission charged on each match.

The ED stated that the cumulative effect of this mechanism enabled the company to systematically convert users’ deposits into revenue in the form of rake commission. It has alleged that Winzo derived total proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 3,522.05 crore for the financial years 2021-22 to 2025-26, up to August 22, 2025.

A part of the direct proceeds of crime, the agency said, was taken out of India to the United States and Singapore under the guise of overseas investments. It noted that while day-to-day business operations and bank account management were carried out from India, funds worth around USD 55 million were parked in bank accounts in the US and Singapore.

With the latest provisional attachment of Rs 505 crore, the total proceeds of crime attached or frozen in the case now stand at approximately Rs 1,194 crore. Of this, movable properties worth around Rs 689 crore had already been frozen earlier in the investigation.

The ED said further investigation is under progress.