FIA serves notice on cryptocurrency exchange in $100mn scam

KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said it issued a notice to Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, during the investigation of an alleged cryptocurrency scam involving $100 million.

The notice called the general manager or growth analyst of Binance Pakistan to appear and explain the organisation's position on the linkage of fraudulent online investment mobile applications with Binance, the statement from the agency's cybercrime wing said Friday.

"A relevant questionnaire has also been sent to Binance Headquarters Cayman Islands and Binance US to explain the same," it added.

In December, people from all over Pakistan launched complaints to the FIA against at least 11 mobile applications which had stopped working over a period of time and defrauded their billions of rupees, the agency said.

The initial findings revealed that each such application had on average 5,000 customers with HFC, one of the applications, reportedly having a maximum of 30,000 customers, said the statement.

According to the FIA: "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."