The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen fresh bank deposits, mutual funds and fixed deposits ₹$192 million WinZO online gaming app for real money. The action came after the ED conducted searches at the gaming company’s accounting firm. The auditor’s office was raided on December 30.
In a statement, the Federal Investigation Agency said that during searches of the WinZO accounting firm, the “proceeds of crime” (a term for illegal funds under the Money Laundering Prevention Act) owned by ZO Games Pvt. Ltd. (wholly owned Indian subsidiary of WinZO Pvt. Ltd.) valued at approx ₹According to PTI, 192 crores have been frozen.
The funds were in the form of bank balances, fixed deposits and mutual funds, the ED said in a statement.
WinZO co-founders Saumya Singh Rathore and Paavan Nanda were arrested after being grilled in Bengaluru at the ED office for alleged money laundering. The firm is accused of cheating, blocking accounts, impersonating and misusing the PAN of the complainants, officials said, according to ANI.
While Saumya Singh Rathore was granted bail, Paavan Nanda was denied similar relief.
On November 18 and November 22, the ED Bengaluru regional office conducted raids at four locations in Delhi and Gurgaon in the case of gaming app WinZO under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
During the initial searches, ED had frozen bonds, fixed deposits and mutual funds worth approx ₹505 million.
In response to the allegations, a WinZO spokesperson said in a statement that “fairness and transparency are fundamental to how WinZO designs and operates its platform.”
But the ED alleged that WinZO was involved in “criminal” activities and “unscrupulous” practices. Players are said to have been made to play with bots, artificial intelligence (AI), algorithms and software called “PPP, EP and Persona” and not humans without being informed.
“Winzo also prevented/restricted withdrawals of money held by customers in Winzo Pvt Ltd. wallets and generated criminal proceeds in the form of ‘Rake Commission’ from matches played by bots with real players on the Winzo app,” the ED said, news agency PTI reported.
The agency further said that in this way, “the company earned around Rs 177 million in winnings from the bots from May 2024 to August 2025.
It added that funds from ₹Similarly, 557 million crowns were created from April 2022 to December 2023.
The company, the agency claimed, held users’ money in value ₹43 crores, even after the Union Government (late 2024) bans online real money gaming. The ED calculated the total proceeds of crime in this case at approx ₹802 million.
