The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen fresh bank deposits, mutual funds and fixed deposits worth ₹192 crore of real money online gaming app WinZO, news agency PTI reported. The action came after the ED conducted searches at the accounting firm of the gaming company. The raid at the office premises of the auditor was conducted on December 30.
The federal investigation agency said in a statement that during searches at WinZO accounting firm, “proceeds of crime” (name for illicit funds under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act) possessed by ZO Games Pvt. Ltd. (fully owned Indian subsidiary of WinZO Pvt. Ltd.) worth around ₹192 crore were frozen, as per PTI.
The funds were in the form of bank balances, fixed deposits and mutual funds, the ED said in its statement.
WinZO co-founders Saumya Singh Rathore and Paavan Nanda were arrested after they were grilled at Bengaluru office of the ED for alleged money laundering. The firm is accused of cheating, blocking accounts, impersonation, and the misuse of complainants' PANs, officials said as per ANI.
While Saumya Singh Rathore has been granted bail, Paavan Nanda has been denied a similar relief.
On November 18 and November 22, ED's Bengaluru zonal office conducted searches at four locations in Delhi and Gurgaon in the case of the WinZO games app under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
During the first searches, the ED had frozen bonds, fixed deposits and mutual funds worth about ₹505 crore.
Reacting to these charges then, a spokesperson for WinZO had said in a statement that “fairness and transparency are core to how WinZO designs and operates its platform.”
But the ED had alleged that WinZO was engaged in “criminal” activities and “unscrupulous” practices. It said the players were made to play with bots, Artificial Intelligence (AI), algorithms and software named ‘PPP, EP and Persona’ and not humans, without being informed so.
“Winzo has also prevented/limited withdrawals of monies held by the customers in the wallets of Winzo Pvt Ltd. and it generated proceeds of crime in the form of 'Rake Commission' from the matches played by the bots with the real players on the Winzo app,” the ED said, news agency PTI reported.
The agency further said that in this manner, “the company made winnings of around Rs177 crore from the bots between May 2024 to August 2025.”
It added that funds of ₹557 crore were similarly generated between April 2022 and December 2023.
The company, the agency alleged, was in possession of users' monies worth ₹43 crore, even after the ban on real money online gaming by the Union government (in late 2024). The ED had quantified the total proceeds of crime in this case at about ₹802 crore.
