ED search at CoinSwitch premises not linked to money laundering, says CEO Ashish Singhal

moneycontrol.com:

The recent searches carried out by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at the premises of CoinSwitch Kuber were not related to alleged money laundering, Ashish Singhal, the chief executive officer of the cryptocurrency exchange, was reported as saying on August 27.

"Most of their engagement with us has been about knowing what CoinSwitch does," Singhal told news agency Reuters, adding that the officials of the federal probing agency sought to know how they operate, the manner in which the users are onboarded and the know-your-customer (KYC) rules which they adhere to.

This was Singhal's first statement after August 25, when five premises of CoinSwitch were searched in the tech hub of Bengaluru.

The action came in the backdrop of the ED freezing assets worth Rs 64 crore of WaxirX, another leading crypto exchange, as part of its ongoing money laundering probe against the firm.

The CoinSwitch search was "not about money laundering," Singhal told Reuters. The agency has "engaged with us with respect to the functioning of our crypto platform and we are fully cooperating with them," he said.

According to reports, a number of cryptocurrency exchanges are under the ED's radar for allegedly laundering over Rs 1,000 crore by assisting some China-based instant loan app companies through the purchase and transfer of virtual crypto assets.