Pakistan investigates Binance’s activities in connection with a multi-million dollar crypto scam

The Federal Investigation Agency of Pakistan ordered the CEO of Binance Pakistan to appear for questioning to identify the exchange's links to fraudulent schemes

10.01.2022 - 15:15

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2 min

What’s new? The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of Pakistan has issued a formal notice to the Binance cryptocurrency exchange in an attempt to identify links around a multi-million dollar digital asset scam in the region.

KARACHI: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has detected an online fraud of Rs100 billion using a cryptocurrency and issued notice to the local representative of Binance, @cz_binance @binance @BinanceHelpDesk @BinanceUS pic.twitter.com/3oukwzmDqh— Innocent Pashteen✌ (@FighterDawar) January 7, 2022

How did events develop? The Pakistani government has launched a criminal investigation after receiving numerous complaints about an ongoing scam in which the fraudsters were misleading investors. The cryptocurrency holders were sending funds from Binance wallets to third-party addresses. The FIA's Cybercrime Wing has ordered the appearance of Binance Pakistan’s CEO Hamza Khan for questioning to identify the exchange's links to fraudulent schemes.

What did the FIA find out? Apart from asking users to register on Binance to transfer the funds, the scammers were adding the victims on a Telegram group to provide “expert betting signals.” Each application averaged around 5 000 customers. The FIA notice said:

“At least 26 suspect blockchain wallet addresses (Binance wallet address) have been identified where fraudulent amount may have been transferred. A letter has been written to Binance Holdings Limited to give the details of these blockchain wallet accounts as well as to debit block them.”

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