Binance claims it helped to bust Chinese crypto scam app in India

ASIA IN BRIEF It's not often The Register writes about a cryptocurrency outfit being on the right side of a scam or crime, but last week crypto exchange Binance claimed it helped Indian authorities to investigate a scam gaming app.

India's Enforcement Directorate in August announced [PDF] it had arrested four people – one of them named "Joseph Stalin" – for assisting Chinese nationals to run a scam gaming app called Fiewin.

The app promised gamers the chance to play for real money, but was allegedly a front for a money laundering operation.

The alleged perps operated accounts on Binance, and the crypto outfit wrote that it offered "deep cooperation" to help Indian authorities to learn "the app had been part of a cross-border criminal network." Apparently it "used various methods to obfuscate the origin and movement of illicit funds by utilizing bank accounts of 'mules' and cryptocurrency wallets, creating a complex web of transactions to hinder detection and tracing."