Live-streaming and pocketing crores

Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) yesterday claimed to have arrested six people, including the mastermind, of a racket involved in illegal money transactions using a video streaming platform.

For the fraud, the racket used an international live-video platform. In Bangladesh, the prime agent for the platform is Abu Musa Imran Ahmed Sony, who has been arrested.

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While addressing a briefing at Dhaka Metropolitan Police media centre, Md Asaduzzaman, chief of CTTC, made the disclosure yesterday.

The five other arrestees are Abu Shama, Fatema Akter, Shyla Akter, Shah Arman, and Md Selim.

Sony appointed around 120 more agents across Bangladesh and 30 in the Middle East to operate. The agents' task was to appoint influencers, mainly girls, for live-streaming largely pornographic content, said the official.

To watch streams, a user of the platform has to buy in-app currency using real money. In Bangladesh, the payment was made through mobile financial service (MFS) accounts operated by the racket, he said.

Through the process, the ring has pocketed crores, said the CTTC chief.

"We have found transactions of around Tk 30 crore in just three months in a single MFS merchant account, operated by the mastermind Sony," he said.

Asaduzzaman said the ring has several MFS accounts like this. Once the money is collected, the ring members used to transfer the money to different countries, including the Middle Eastern nations, through hundi.

He, however, did not give details of those countries. "We are now investigating how much money they have transferred so far."

A case was filed against the arrestees with Ramna Police Station under the Digital Security Act.