Bahrain is planning to grow and endorse themselves as a ‘financial tech hub,’ therefore, they went and approached Middle Eastern nations looking for participants. They are looking for Indian companies to participate in the fintech industry so that they can grow it in this region. Bahrain plans to develop the technology of blockchain in India as per the report of March 3^rd by the Economic Times.

All the different types of options related to blockchain technologies like open banking, remittances, robot advisory, and crypto assets, Bahrain has planned to offer the Indian firms in an attempt to enhance fintech in this country. Dalal Buhejji, Senior Manager of Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB), said that since after oil and gas the second highest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product is the financial service zone they want to grow this zone more.

Dalal Buhejji reported that in December 2018 few Indian firms had put an application on Bahraini fintech sandbox. On the other hand, there was a Memorandum of Understanding that was signed between EDB and the Maharashtra government. In order to promote fintech simultaneously at once on both the markets, they signed the Memorandum and developed the framework.

Dalal said that in the financial service sector innovations, Bahrain behaves like a test bed because this nation offers a lot of advantages which consist of doing business at low costs, appropriate accelerator, and incubators. These are just a few among many other advantages, she said.

She added that the proper ecosystem had been put together by Central Bank of Bahrain so that it supports growth and innovation. She added that they have recently witnessed various new regulation that is emerging to support digital assets, open banking and a draft regulation on robot advisory.

In February 2019, the new regulatory sandbox was launched which will permit blockchain and cryptocurrency firms to work in Bahrain. A formal regulation has not yet been passed. The firms have the permission to test their solution and speed up the firms’ entry within the market as the initiative is all set. They can test it on only a few users and can perform limited transactions.

Sandbox is usually looked at like a safe area for testing financial revolutions as it sees a limited raise of new products to choose consumers. In December 2018, a roadshow was done in Mumbai to attract fintech firms as India was considered as the key market.

On Sunday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the third time interrogated the former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar and meanwhile convicted Nishant Kanodia, the chairman of Matrix Fertilizer. Deepak Kochhar and Venugopal Dhoot were deeply questioned by the ED, and after completing the process of interrogation for the day, they left the investigating agency after Sunday midnight. Earlier on Saturday, the ED had the former CEO and MD of ICICI Chanda Kochhar for questioning along with her husband Deepak Kochhar and Venugopal Dhoot for questions because of their connection with the conflict of interest in which the loan was extended to Videocon Group.

Chanda Kocchar and her Husband Deepak Kocchar were present at the investigating agency before the investors at 11. A.M and Venugopal Dhoot had been before the investigating officer at 2 P.M. While, Chanda Kocchar left the investigating office by half an hour, but Deepak Kocchar and Venugopal Dhoot both were interrogated by the officer for several hours.

Their statements were recorded by the ED, and the documents which were seized by the agency were placed before them during the interrogation process. This move comes just weeks after the ED had registered a criminal case against Deepak and Venugopal over money laundering charges. The case has been registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED had summoned Chanda Kocchar, Deepak Kocchar and Venugopal Dhoot in their quid pro case of worth Rs 3,250 crore on Saturday. The investigation by ED alleges that NuPower Renewables run by Deepak Kocchar had received 64 crore rupees in the year of 2010 through a maze of shell companies from Venugopal in return to this, he received a loan from the ICICI Bank during 2009 to 2011 of amount more than Rs 1,575 crore. While in 2010, the NuPower Company received 325 crore rupees from a Mauritius firm, Firstland Holdings which is acquired by Nishant Kanodia, who is not only the owner of Firstland Holdings but also the son-in-law of Ruia, who is the founder of the Essar Group.

On Friday, the ED had searched the properties related to Chanda Kocchar and Venugopal Dhoot in Mumbai and also in Aurangabad. Due to the money laundering case, the search operation was carried out, the authorities stated. Raids were conducted by the ED on the houses of Chanda Kocchar and in offices. A team of investigators were supported by police and initiated their search operation. The search operation was carried out in 5 offices along with other locations. With Chanda, Dhoot and Deepak, the investigating agency also quizzed Mahesh Puglia, who is the close ally of Venugopal Dhoot and also a relative of the Kochhars.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had released lookout circulars (LOCs) against the former ICICI Bank MD & CEO Chanda, her husband Deepak, and Venugopal Dhoot –the chairman of Videocon Group.

The official mentioned that the FIR was filed in the case and only then the LOCs were issued. LOCs are very much essential and needed in such cases where economic offenses are found.

The CBI probe alleges that six loans amount to 1,875 crore rupees has been approved to Videocon Group from June 2009 to October 2011, during the time when Chanda Kocchar was the CEO and MD of ICICI Bank, and she was also a key committee member.

Arvind Gupta, who is the shareholder activist in May 2018, had raised the issue about the deals that took place between NuPower Renewables and Videocon Group and had complained to the Prime Minister Office (PMO) that the investment of worth 453 crore rupees from the Essar Group was directed via Kanodia’s Matix Group and its entity, Firstland Holdings.

The criminal case was registered by ED in previous month against Chanda Kocchar, Deepak Kocchar, Venugopal Dhoot and others so as to investigate the irregularities and corrupt practices that were claimed while approving an amount of worth 3,250 crore loan by the ICICI Bank to the firms.

CBI further claims that ICICI bank had sanctioned a loan of worth 1,575 corer rupees to Videocon Group and later changed into non-performing assets (NPA). The CBI also claims that via Dhoot’s Company, Venugopal Dhoot had made investments in Nupower Renewables which is owned by Deepak Kocchar, which were validated by ICICI Bank and cleared.

There were complicated web transactions taking place between the Nupower owner and Supreme Energy owner, the CBI claims.

A US court has rejected the demand by two civil rights groups for the release of documents by Facebook to decrypt the conversation that an MS 13 gang had on Facebook’s messenger app. On Feb11, the US judge rejected the demand, the issue came up after a joint investigation by the Federal and state investigation agencies wanted Facebook to decrypt the voice conversations the MS-13 gang had on their Messenger service. Facebook uses end-end encryption to protect calls from being intercepted. That essentially means only the two conversing parties will only have access to it and nobody else can intercept it.

All telecom companies in the US have to give access to calls to the police under its Federal laws, but those apps which use the internet are exempt from it. Facebook claims that its Messenger app also falls under that exemption. The filings made by the two civil groups and the public filings in the Fresno case states that the government intercepted all ordinary phone calls and texts that happened between the MS-13 gang members and the affidavit says that only a few Messenger calls were not heard. Despite not hearing the conversations, the gang members were arrested.

Many groups which include the ACLU or the American Civil Liberties Union contend that the public had the right to know the laws on encryption and it outweighs the reason the Justice Department may have for a criminal probe. Even the Washington Post filed a brief to decrypt the records. The US judge in Fresno Lawrence O’Neill judged that the documents were sensitive and that it would not be possible even to release the revised version of it as it is a sensitive law-enforcement technique. He addressed that ‘The materials at issue in this case concern techniques that, if disclosed publicly, would compromise law enforcement efforts in many, if not all, future wiretap investigations.’

The arguments made by Facebook and the Justice Department to ACLU’s statements are kept as a secret, but the judge in his statement wrote that Facebook had supported the ACLU’s request to release the documents with some revisions while the Government was against the decision. Both the US Justice Department and Facebook have declined to make any comment publicly about this case as the court has passed a gag order against speaking in public. However, there have been reports of investigators failing to convince Facebook in a courtroom to wiretap specific messenger calls.

As per a recent news correspondence, a lawyer has been appointed by a Nova Scotia’s court in Canada to have access to the encrypted laptop of the deceased CEO, Gerald Cotton of QuadrigaCX, which is a major Canadian crypto exchange. The laptop which is believed to provide access to $190 million of QuadrigaCX customer funds has been currently handed over to someone for monitoring. The Court has appointed a monitor, Ernst & Young Inc., an independent third party to oversee these proceedings, so that customer obligations are addressed. Even, creditor protection has been filed which would allow to work diligently through the process and ensure the viability of the company. The laptop was previously held by QuadrigaCX representatives.

QuadrigaCX which is a cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE) provides its customers services for the exchange of virtual currency into various assets, such as fiat or other digital currencies. The platforms usually work solely online, providing transactions in electronic forms and taking fees for them, though there are also some brick-and-mortar businesses that use traditional payment methods. Debit and credit cards, postal money orders and other kinds of money transfers are accepted to make an operation using a DCE.

Currently, the assets are stored in a cold wallet, and the court believes this QuadrigaCX case is not a case of typical bankruptcy. The creditors have the rights to consider changing the jurisdiction to proceed with the case in future.

This week the company has been asked by the court to appoint one of the ‘Big Four’ auditing firm, the Ernst & Young as an independent third party to follow up and monitor the proceedings. Ernst & Young (EY) which is a British auditing and consulting company would be following up the company financials. In terms of cryptocurrency, EY representatives have a positive attitude toward the technologies of blockchain and digital currency. Unlike the other three companies in the Big Four, EY supports the Bitcoin community.

The QuadrigaCX management has asked for a month of stay for proceedings which is expected to end on Mar. 7. The investigation team would be searching almost $190 million which is apparently inaccessible following the death of Cotton. In the worst scenario, if the missing keys are not found, the lawyers representing QuadrigaCX would be looking forward to selling the company to satisfy the debts.

Recently, QuadrigaCX which is a Canadian cryptocurrency exchange had to face financial difficulty since the death of the CEO, Gerald Cotten who reportedly died of complications from Crohn’s disease.

One of the leading publications in Canada has published the death certificate and have expressed their concerns about Cotten’s death. The users do not have access to its wallets, and the CEO has not left evidence of passwords.