ED arrests gaming platform WinZO's founder duo on money laundering charges

New Delhi/Bengaluru: The Enforcement Directorate has arrested online money gaming platform WinZO founders – Saumya Singh Rathore and Paavan Nanda – on money laundering charges, officials said Thursday. They were arrested in Bengaluru on Wednesday following their questioning at the zonal office of the federal probe agency, they said. The two were produced before a local court in Bengaluru the same night, and were sent to one-day custody by the court. They are expected to be produced again before the court for a detailed order, as per officials. On Monday, the ED, in a statement, alleged that funds to the tune of Rs 43 crore of gamers were "held" by the company and that these monies should ideally have been refunded to players after India banned real-money gaming. The ED had raided the premises of WinZO and Gamezkraft, another company offering online gaming, and their promoters last week under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED had accused WinZO of "engaging in criminal activities and unscrupulous practices as customers were made to play with algorithms without being made aware of the fact that they are playing with the software and not with humans in real-money games." It said WinZO was operating real-money games (RMGs) in countries such as Brazil, the US, and Germany, from India (on the same platform used by the Indian entity). "Even after the ban of RMGs by the Union government (w.e.f. 22/08/2025), an amount of Rs 43 crore is still held by the company without refunding to the gamers/customers," the ED alleged. It said bonds, fixed deposits, and mutual funds worth Rs 505 crore "possessed" by WinZO Games, were frozen under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Reacting to these charges, a spokesperson for WinZO, in a statement, said, "Fairness and transparency are core to how WinZO designs and operates its platform." "Our focus remains on protecting our users and ensuring a secure, trustworthy experience," WinZO said, adding that it remains fully compliant with all applicable laws. WinZO, the ED said, also prevented or limited withdrawals of money held by the customers in the wallets and generated alleged illicit funds in the form of bet amounts placed and lost by real customers through the "unscrupulous" use of algorithms/software. The agency claimed to have found that WinZO's global operations were undertaken through a single app, meaning they were hosted on the India-based platform. "It was also found that the funds by the Indian entity have been diverted to the US and Singapore under the garb of overseas investments. "Funds worth USD 55 million (about Rs 489.90 crore) have been parked in their (WinZO) bank account in the US, which is a shell company since all the operations and day-to-day business activities and operation of bank accounts were done from India," the ED charged. The agency made similar allegations against Gamezkraft.