Who is Saumya Singh Rathore? WinZO co-founder arrested by ED in money laundering case

WinZO founders – Saumya Singh Rathore and Paavan Nanda – were reportedly arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in Bengaluru in connection with a money laundering case, officials told news agency PTI on Thursday. They said the WinZO founders were arrested following questioning at the zonal office of the federal probe agency.

Who is Saumya Singh Rathore?

Saumya Singh Rathore is a co-founder of WinZO, a social gaming app that offers monetary benefits and prizes to players. The online money gaming platform was started in 2018.

Rathore and another accused, Paavan Nanda, were previously colleagues from Zo Rooms.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Saumya Singh Rathore has also worked with Times Network as a partner in the English Entertainment Cluster.

She also headed the Compensation and Benefits section at The Times of India. Earlier, she served as a business manager at Times Group companies.

Saumya Singh Rathore was also an employee at KPMG London, as per her LinkedIn profile.

Saumya Singh Rathore's education: She studied Applied Clinical Psychology at Bangalore University in 2005 and earned a Master's degree in Organisational and Consumer Psychology, as well as Industrial and Consumer Psychology, from the University of Manchester.

Saumya Singh Rathore's net worth: In the Kotak Private Banking Hurun Leading Wealthy Women List 2021, Saumya Singh Rathore emerged as one of the youngest new additions to the List, with a wealth of INR 520 crore.

What's the case against Saumya Singh Rathore?

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued a statement on Monday, stating that funds to the tune of ₹43 crore belonging to gamers were "held" by the company.

It said these monies should ideally have been refunded to players after India banned real-money gaming.

The Enforcement Directorate had earlier raided the premises of WinZO and Gamezkraft, another company offering online gaming, as well as their promoters, last week under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The financial probe agency had then 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 ₹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 ₹505 crore "possessed" by WinZO Games were frozen under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

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 ₹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.

How did WinZO officials react?

Reacting to these charges, a spokesperson for WinZO was quoted by PTI as saying, "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 reportedly said, adding that it remains fully compliant with all applicable laws.