The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday froze fresh deposits worth Rs 192 crore of real money gaming platform WinZO following raids at the accounting firm of its Indian subsidiary, ZO Games Pvt. Ltd. The frozen assets include bank balances, mutual funds, and fixed deposits. The search was conducted on December 30.

This is part of an ongoing investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Earlier in November, the ED arrested WinZO founders Saumya Singh Rathore and Paavan Nanda; Rathore has since been granted bail, while Nanda’s plea was rejected. In the first round of raids, assets worth Rs 505 crore were frozen.

The ED alleges that WinZO engaged in “unscrupulous” practices by making customers play against bots powered by AI and proprietary software named 'PPP, EP, and Persona,' without disclosure. Withdrawals were reportedly restricted, while the company earned around Rs 177 crore from bot matches between May 2024 and August 2025, and Rs 557 crore from April 2022 to December 2023.

The agency said WinZO still held users’ funds of Rs 43 crore even after the Union government banned real money online gaming in late 2024. Total proceeds of crime have been estimated at Rs 802 crore.

According to the ED, part of these funds was routed overseas as “investments,” with USD 54 million parked in a US bank account under WINZO US Inc., described as a shell company, while actual operations continue from India.