A Special Investigation Team (SIT) started an investigation into a significant Bitcoin scam that is currently going on. The investigation is mainly focused on several officers from the Indian Crime Branch, including a high-ranking Inspector General of Police (IGP).
The SIT has officially asked Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sandeep Patil, who was in charge of the Crime Branch at the time, to talk about problems found in the investigation into a Bitcoin-related scam.
Hacker Srikrishna Ramesh, also known as Sriki, and his partner Robin Khandelwal are at the center of the incident. Sriki, who is thought to have planned the illegal scheme, is said to have broken into the security of the Unocoin cryptocurrency exchange in 2017 and stolen 60.6 Bitcoins worth ₹1.14 crore, which was about $137,000 at the time. After that, he did more cyberattacks on different online sites and used cryptocurrency to hide the money he made from the crimes.
“Bitcoin Scandal, Key Revelations”
Sriki is said to have traded 150 Bitcoins worth 5.5 crore through Khandelwal in later deals. At first, the two were in trouble with the law in 2020 on charges that they bought drugs online using Bitcoin.
A First Information Report (FIR) filed by the SIT in January names private cyber expert Santhosh Kumar, former Crime Branch officers Sridhar Poojar, Prashanth Babu, Chandradhar SR, and Lakshmikanthaiah, and former Crime Branch officer Sridhar Poojar. They are all accused of crimes such as illegal detention, breach of trust by a public official, and tampering with evidence related to the Bitcoin scandal.
Some of the accusations include messing with the investigation to hide the fact that found Bitcoins were stolen. At first, the results showed that 31 Bitcoins worth 9 crores were taken from Sriki and 0.08627702 BTC were taken from Khandelwal. But these things that were taken away have since disappeared.
Authorities say that Sriki changed the Bitcoin core application to trick investigators, but the Crime Branch didn’t look into the details of this change.
Additionally, the SIT’s investigation shows that Inspector Chandradhar forced Khandelwal to move funds from his account to the cryptocurrency exchange Wazirx in order to buy Bitcoins. This claimed coercion was said to be an attempt to make up for lost BTC, since Khandelwal had used up all of his cryptocurrency reserves.
Rishab, who is the son of an Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), is also being looked at by the SIT because he may have been involved in the scam. According to the accusations, he traded Bitcoin illegally using money that he got in illegal ways. He is said to have bought a car with a ₹40 lakh check that he got while Sriki was working.
These changes come at a time when there are a lot of scams in India involving cryptocurrencies. The country’s Enforcement Directorate busted two big scams earlier this month and seized assets worth more than $30 million. Before this, the ED and the FBI worked together to break up a $360 million drug dealing ring that used cryptocurrencies to make transactions easier.
