Guwahati: In relation to the alleged “Global Media App” investment fraud case, which involves widespread deceit of investors through a fraud online earning scheme, the Enforcement Directorate has temporarily attached movable items valued at Rs 1.06 crore.
The ED’s Shillong Sub-Zonal Office stated in a press release on May 9 that the action was taken in accordance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act as part of its ongoing investigation.
The inquiry was started in response to a formal complaint (FIR) filed at the Madanriting Police Station in Meghalaya‘s East Khasi Hills district about alleged cheating via a mobile app called “Global Media App.”
The ED claims that the accused used the app as a ponzi-style investment scheme that pretended to be an internet advertising platform and offered passive income for viewing advertisement videos.
Investigators claimed that promises of significant daily returns and referral commissions were used to entice consumers to upgrade to VIP membership levels.
According to the organization, money was collected from investors via bank transfers, UPI transactions, and cryptocurrency wallets, and the program was widely advertised through a Telegram channel run by people with foreign mobile numbers.
According to officials, the fraudulent operation ran from June 3, 2022, until October 12, 2022, at which point the application was suddenly shut down and the accused allegedly fled with investor money.
The ED calculated that the plan produced about Rs 45.33 crore in profits of crime.
Several bank accounts, merchant IDs, payment gateway accounts, and cryptocurrency wallets that were purportedly used for money collecting and stacking were discovered by investigators.
The agency also disclosed that money obtained via the application was passed via multiple tiers of bank accounts and merchant organizations registered in payment gateways what investigators referred to as “mule entities.”
The ED also discovered that Tether tokens were collected and transferred via cryptocurrency wallets running on the TRON blockchain network.
To track the flow of money and determine beneficiaries, investigators contacted banks, payment gateways, Google, Telegram, and cryptocurrency exchanges.
The ED asserted that the fraud had a substantial global component, claiming that mobile numbers registered in Malaysia and Cambodia were used to operate the Telegram channels linked to the program.
Additionally, officials said that Gmail accounts linked to the application’s backend were registered with “Terms of Service country: Cambodia,” indicating that the scheme’s operational control was situated outside of India.
The ED claims that USDT tokens worth about Rs2.45 crore were obtained from victims and transferred to user accounts on a foreign cryptocurrency exchange via the TRON blockchain.
According to the agency, additional research into the money flow is in progress and KYC information on the immediate end beneficiaries has been acquired.