Overview
- The Enforcement Directorate opened a Prevention of Money Laundering Act probe and executed searches on July 18 and 19 that recovered digital devices, email records, crypto wallets and 8,700 USDT.
- ED has named three accused—Mohammed Waseem, Saurabh Diwan and Vaibhav Gupta—and identified Ravindra K as the alleged Bengaluru‑based mastermind who received routed funds.
- Investigators say the fraud used over‑the‑counter trades and private Telegram groups to promise discounted allocations from known token projects, completing small successful deals first to win larger investments.
- Evidence from the searches led the agency to raise the estimated loss from about $10 million in the FIR to roughly $35 million and suggested multiple foreign victims have not yet filed complaints.
- Authorities warn that tracing and recovering crypto is complex and cross‑border work may be needed to seize assets and compensate victims as the probe continues and investigators map funds diverted into personal, business and real estate holdings.