New Delhi, Jan 1 (UNI): The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Bengaluru Zonal Office on Thursday said that they recently conducted a search operation at the office premises of the accounting firm for Winzo Pvt. Ltd.
The official said that WinZO Pvt. Ltd. is into the business of online real money gaming services through its app – WinZO. During the search, Proceeds of Crime (POC) possessed by ZO Games Pvt Ltd. (fully owned Indian subsidiary of M/s. Winzo Pvt. Ltd.) worth around Rs 192 crores, has been frozen in the form of bank balances, FDRs, and mutual funds under section 17 (1A) of the PMLA, 2002.
Earlier, the ED conducted search and seizure operations at the office premises of Winzo Pvt. Ltd., and residential premises of its Director. The evidence unearthed during the search and subsequent investigation revealed that the company was engaged in criminal activities and unscrupulous practices.
It was alleged that customers were made to play with BOTs/AI/Algorithms/software (termed as PPP/EP/Persona) without being made aware of it. Winzo has also prevented limited withdrawals of monies held by the customers in the wallets of Winzo Pvt Ltd.
Winzo Pvt Ltd also generated POC in the form of ‘Rake Commission’ from the matches played by the BOTs with the real players on their Winzo App. In this manner, the company has made winnings of around Rs.177 Crore from the BOTs, for the period from May 2024 to August 2025 and Rs. 557 Crore, for the period Apr 2022 to Dec 2023.
Also, the company was in possession of users’ monies amounting to Rs. 43 Crore, even after the ban of Real Money Games by the union Government. So far, the investigation revealed that M/s. Winzo Pvt. Ltd., has generated POC of around Rs. 802 Crore.
Further, a part of the POC has been taken out of India to USA and Singapore under the garb of overseas investments. The funds worth USD 54 Million have been parked in their bank account in USA (bank account held in the name of ‘WINZO US Inc.”), which is a shell company, since all the operations and day-to-day business activities, operation of bank accounts is done from India.
Further investigation into the matter is ongoing.
