The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached properties worth Rs 1.06 crore in a case linked to the Global Media App, saying the online platform was used in a ponzi-style fraud that generated proceeds of crime worth more than Rs 45 crore. The attachment was made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The agency said the case began with an FIR lodged by Madanriting Police Station in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills district. Its probe found that the app promised users daily passive income for watching advertisement videos and pushed them to buy VIP membership plans with assurances of high daily returns and referral commissions.
According to the ED, the scheme ran from June 3, 2022, to October 12, 2022, before the operators abruptly shut the application and disappeared with the money. The agency put the amount of proceeds of crime at around Rs 45.33 crore.
The investigation found multiple bank accounts, merchant IDs, payment gateway accounts and crypto wallets used to collect and layer the funds. Money was routed through several layers of bank accounts and mule merchant entities tied to payment gateways to hide the trail, while TRON blockchain wallets were used to collect and move USDT tokens. The ED also said it carried out enquiries with banks, payment gateways, Google, Telegram and cryptocurrency exchanges to trace the flow of money.
A substantial portion of the proceeds of crime, about Rs 2.45 crore, was collected directly from victims in USDT tokens through the TRON blockchain and later moved to accounts on a foreign cryptocurrency exchange. The agency said the Telegram channel used to promote the app was administered by four individuals whose mobile numbers were registered in Cambodia and Malaysia, while the Gmail accounts used for the backend were registered with Cambodia listed as the terms-of-service country.
The case shows how the alleged fraud blended familiar payment channels with crypto transfers and foreign-linked messaging accounts to widen the trail and make recovery harder. The attachment is part of an ongoing money laundering investigation, and the next phase will focus on tracing the remaining assets and the people behind the operation.
