Many governments have recently become more lenient regarding the regulation of cryptocurrencies, but that is not the case for all countries. India has taken a number of relatively tough measures this year, and is currently investigating money laundering practices at major exchanges. The Indian government is now freezing the assets of these companies. Now it’s nearly $50 million from Vauld that’s been frozen.
Money embezzled via crypto
In June, it was revealed that the Indian branch of crypto bank Vauld was also experiencing financial difficulties due to the terra (LUNA) crash. Many companies in the sector were “contaminated” by Terra’s demise. Vauld was also included, but after competitor Nexo offered to buy the company, we had heard little more about the problems at Vauld.
Now the Indian government has announced that it the bank balances of Yellow Tune Technologies has frozen. It concerns no less than 46.4 million dollars, part of which is with the Indian crypto exchange Flipvolt. This company is the Indian branch of Vauld, which is headquartered in Singapore. Vauld is now indirectly involved.
So the freeze is not caused by Flipvolt and Vauld. Instead, Yellow Tune allegedly embezzled 3.7 billion Indian rupees ($46.4 billion) in money through Chinese lenders. Yellow Tune appears to have been a shell company of two Chinese who have tried to embezzle the money under pseudonyms.
Impact still unknown
The government likes to emphasize that the criminals used Flipvolt because this trading platform is very bad Know Your Customer standards (KYC). So the duo could easily create an account and get started. The exact size of Vauld’s Indian branch is unknown, so it is difficult to estimate how big the impact will be on the company and on Vauld itself.
Last week, the Indian government also froze nearly $10 million from WazirX, the country’s largest exchange, as part of an investigation into money laundering.
Shortly before the weekend, the Netherlands has Tornado Cash Developer Alexey Partsev arrestedwhile he only wrote software that criminals used for suspicious activities.
