The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Bengaluru Zonal Office, has arrested Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh Rathore, both Directors of New Delhi–based WinZO Games Pvt. Ltd., for their alleged involvement in money-laundering activities linked to the company’s online real-money gaming operations.
The arrests were made on November 26 under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The accused were produced before the Principal City Civil & Sessions Judge (CCH-1) in Bengaluru on Thursday.
According to officials, search operations were conducted last week at the WinZO’s corporate office and at the residence of Saumya Singh Rathore. The searches were based on FIRs alleging cheating, account-blocking, impersonation, and misuse of PAN details by the company and others.
Preliminary findings by the ED suggest that the WinZO engaged in fraudulent practices by allegedly making customers play real-money games against algorithms or software instead of human opponents, without disclosing this to users. The agency claims the company restricted or prevented withdrawals from customer wallets and generated large ‘proceeds of crime’ through the manipulation of such game mechanisms.
So far, assets worth ₹505 crore, held in the form of bank balances, bonds, fixed-deposit receipts and mutual funds, have been frozen under Section 17(1A) of the PMLA.
