Mumbai: Online gaming platform WinZO’s founders- Soumya Singh Rathore and Paavan Nanda- have been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). This came a day after both sent an internal message to their employees, saying they were caught up with “something that came our way in an unexpected manner” along with a permanent Work From Home (WFH) for all employees.
The ED had previously searched four WinZO locations in Delhi and Gurugram earlier this month while freezing assets worth ₹505 crore in the form of bonds, fixed deposits, mutual funds and bank balances. On November 24, the ED said its investigation found that WinZO engaged in criminal practices where customers were misled into believing that they were playing with real people while they were actually playing with software or its algorithms.
“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.
The ED’s investigation also revealed that WinZO was running real money games in markets like Brazil, Germany and the US from the same platform as its Indian entity.
A spokesperson from the company rejected the allegations. “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.” he said.
Following the ban on real money games, almost 400 companies in the domain have been instructed to refund the money collected from its former users by Febuary 18, but WinZO seems to have prevented or limited the illicit fund amount withdrawals by misusing its algorithms/software, the ED further alleges.
