By the number of trades it handles, Binance is the world’s most important market. Indian officials have found it very useful as they look into significant undertaking betting scam linked to the website Fiewin. Binance worked with India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) to find the scammers and get back about $47.6 million that had been stolen.
An official statement from Binance says that their Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) gave important information that helped find laundered funds and arrest four people involved in the scam. Binance said that its team helped track the flow of illegal funds, which went through different cryptocurrency wallets connected to a global cryptocurrency exchange.
Fiewin Scam Exposed as Victims Trapped by False Promises of Easy Profits
“The Fiewin app lied to people into gambling and gaming online by saying they could make easy money,” Binance said in a statement, adding that their FIU was a significant component of finding the suspects and their scam network. Even though this is a significant move forward, it’s still not clear if the whole $47.6 million has been returned. Binance said that the case is still going on and that they are working with the Indian government to find and arrest the people who are running the larger criminal business.
At first, the Fiewin app seemed like a real way for people to make money through mini-games, but it quickly turned out to be a scam for people who weren’t paying attention. Users were told they could easily make money if they added money to their in-app balances, but once their accounts hit a certain amount of money, many of them couldn’t get to their money.
As more victims came forward with complaints, Indian authorities started an investigation. It was soon taken over by the ED, which is the government body in charge of fighting financial crime in the country. When the ED looked into Fiewin, they found that the site was part of a huge international crime network that made it easier for illegal money to move through a complicated web of bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets.
A spokesperson for India’s ED acknowledged Binance’s important part in the operation, saying, “This case shows how important it is for public institutions like the ED and private entities like Binance to work together to deal with the new types of digital threats that cryptocurrency-related financial crimes pose.”
This is not the first time that Binance has worked with Indian officials to achieve success. In May 2024, Binance’s FIU helped the ED stop the E-Nugget scam, which was a similar scheme that used a gaming site to trick people into giving up their money. As a result of the probe, 42 digital asset accounts and hundreds of bank accounts were frozen. The stolen funds worth nearly $6 million were then recovered.
It was official for Binance to be registered as an Indian Intelligence reporting business in August 2023. Its part in India’s fight against financial crime is now more significant because of this. This happened because the site had been blocked for seven months because it wasn’t listed correctly in India.
Both Binance and India’s ED are keen to find the other criminals involved in the Fiewin case, which is still going on. Cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance are playing a more significant part in the fight against cybercrime because of this case. This is because law enforcement has a harder time doing their work with cryptocurrency because it is decentralized and used all over the world.
People all over the world will be scammed by more schemes like Fiewin. To stop this, states and private companies like Binance will need to work together even more.
