💰India Slaps 🐶Bybit with $1.06M Fine for PMLA Rule Break!🤯

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In a tale as old as the 🌞, yet new as the dawn, the Financial Intelligence Unit of India (FIU-IND), a stalwart defender of the realm’s financial integrity, has wielded its mighty pen and inked a hefty $1.06 million (₹9.27 Crore) fine upon the chest of Bybit, the 🦕world’s second-largest crypto exchange, for daring to dance with the devil, aka the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2005.

Bybit, a purveyor of virtual digital assets (VDAs), and thus a reporting entity under the watchful eye of PMLA, had ventured into the bustling Indian market sans the necessary registration with FIU-IND, akin to a 🐶without a leash in a park full of cats. The company’s actions, or lack thereof, were akin to a 🎩magician forgetting his wand.

And so, the Finance Ministry, in all its solemnity, proclaimed that Bybit had not only danced but pirouetted around the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005, as if they were mere suggestions rather than the law of the land. In a move as dramatic as a 🎭theatrical curtain drop, the FIU-IND blocked Bybit’s websites and halted its operations under the Information Technology Act, 2000, with a wave of the Ministry of Electronics and Communication Technology’s (MEITY) magic wand.

Amidst the 🎪circus of events, FIU-IND Director Vivek Aggarwal, a man of discernment and duty, found Bybit guilty of multiple violations after reviewing the company’s written and oral submissions. It was as if Bybit had played a game of 🎲dice with fate and lost.

On January 31, the government authority, in a voice as clear as a 📢town crier, declared the charges against Bybit under Section 13 for breaking the sacred rules of the PMLA Act. It was a day that would live in infamy, at least in the annals of Bybit’s history.

Yet, in a twist as unexpected as a 🍀four-leaf clover in a desert, on March 10, 2023, the FIU-IND had previously released guidelines for those dealing in Virtual Digital Assets, outlining the dos and don’ts of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Financing of Terrorism (CFT). Bybit, it seems, had missed the memo.

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2025-02-01 12:53