Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, announced its full cooperation with the FIA in the proceeding investigation of the Rs.18 billion scam due to the 11 fraudulent mobile apps.
Head of FIA cybercrime wing Imran Riaz, confirmed that Binance has reached out to FIA through telephone on Tuesday and confirmed its full co-operation with also an official e-mail confirming the same.
Break Through in fraudulent online applications linked with Binance case. Binance, contacted FIA Cyber Crime Sindh and assured its full support regarding mega financial scam investigation involving 11 fraudulent apps using Binance blockchain addresses.
— Imran Riaz (@ImmiRizz) January 11, 2022
Imran Riaz said in his tweet, “A telephonic contact was made on Friday night, followed by e-mail contact on Saturday”.
He also said “I appreciate the response of Binance, keeping in view the gravity of the issue, and look forward to continued cooperation in unearthing criminal activities based on cryptocurrency”.
Riaz added in a tweet, “Binance has nominated a two-member team to coordinate with FIA Cyber Crime. The investigators are associated with the US Department of Treasury with specialization in cryptocurrency investigations”.
How It Happened?
On December 2021, FIA had received complaint against at least 11 mobile applications which had stopped working over a period of time and allegedly defrauded their billions of Pakistani rupees. MCX, HFC, HTFOX, FXCOPY, OKIMINI, BB001, AVG86C, BX66, UG, TASKTOK and 91fp were the identified apps.
Hamza khan, Growth Analyst at Binance Pakistan, was issued an order of attendance by FIA Cyber Crime Sindh to explain his position and link of the fraudulent online investing mobile apps with Binance, FIA had said.
The telegram authorities were also notified by the agency to provide their full assistance for locating the owner of these fraud applications.
According to the FIA’s initial results, each application had an average of 5,000 users, with HFC reporting the highest number at 30,000 and the reported range of investment per person was from $100 to $80,000 with an estimated average of $2,000 per person thus making estimated scam stand at nearly $100 million (Rs.18 billion).
The full-fledged cooperation of Binance with FIA seems to spark a ray of hope for the individuals who suffered from this scam.
To read our blog on FIA issued a notice to Binance in relation to Rs. 17.7 billion mega-scam involving Pakistanis, click here