Shillong ED attaches Rs 1.06 crore
SHILLONG, May 9: A sophisticated international cryptocurrency scam that siphoned over Rs 45 crore from investors has seen its first major crackdown, with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attaching assets worth Rs 1.06 crore. The investigation, which has uncovered links to cyber-syndicates in Cambodia and Malaysia, was triggered by a local complaint filed at Madanrting Police Station.
The “Global Media App” operated as a Ponzi scheme disguised as an online advertising platform. Victims were promised daily passive income for watching videos and were induced to pay for “VIP membership plans” with assurances of high returns and referral commissions. The scheme operated between June and October 2022 before the perpetrators abruptly shut down the application and disappeared with the funds.
While the ED’s Shillong Sub-Zonal Office has provisionally attached Rs 1.06 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the agency confirmed that the total proceeds of crime generated by the fraud amount to approximately Rs 45.33 crore.
The investigation revealed a complex layering process designed to hide the money trail. Fraudsters used “mule accounts”—rented bank accounts and merchant IDs—to funnel funds through payment gateways. The scam also had a heavy digital currency component; investigators found that approximately Rs 2.45 crore was collected directly from victims in the form of USDT (Tether) tokens via the TRON blockchain before being moved to foreign cryptocurrency exchanges.
The ED highlighted the international scale of the operation, noting that the Telegram channels used to lure investors were administered by individuals using mobile numbers from Cambodia and Malaysia. Furthermore, the Google accounts used to manage the app’s backend were registered in Cambodia, indicating the scheme was controlled from outside India.
The agency identified the currently attached funds by analysing financial transactions and blockchain transfers. Efforts to trace the remaining Rs 44 crore and identify the end recipients on foreign exchanges are ongoing.
