A cryptocurrency handler from Delhi allegedly cheated a US national of $400,000 (Rs 3.35 crore). The ED arrested the accused after an investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI.
The accused was identified as Lakshya Vij, who was presented before court and sent to five-day ED custody. According to the FIR registered by the CBI, the accused contacted a woman, who is a US national, and convinced her to transfer her bank investments to a cryptocurrency account.
The FIR stated that the caller then gained unauthorised remote access to her computer and created a cryptocurrency account in her name using her mobile number and email ID. The accused then advised her to transfer the money to that account and, when the woman logged into her account later, she found her money had gone, it said.
The woman then lodged a complaint and the information was passed on to Indian authorities, based on which the CBI registered an FIR.
Investigators said the accused cheated the woman by transferring the money to a crypto account from the woman’s bank account. The bitcoins were circulated among a number of crypto wallets and further transferred to several others through multiple layers, they said.
After the multiple transfers, the money was sent from a cryptocurrency account to the bank accounts of dummy entities, investigators said. It was then transferred in Indian currency to hundreds of people and entities through payment aggregators, they added.
The ED had conducted searches in this case on June 6 and collected digital evidence. Statements of several people whose wallets were used in the transfer of the cryptocurrency were recorded under sections 17 and 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The evidence collected showed that the accused was the person issuing instructions about the bitcoin transfers through WhatsApp groups, copies of which were seized.
Comments
0 comment