City police, which investigated hacker Srikrishna’s cybercrimes and filed chargesheets in three cases, have alleged that he hacked several US-based bitcoin exchange wallets and stole more than 5,000 bitcoins. But they have failed to recover even a single bitcoin.
There are reports in the political circles that a US agency along with its Indian counterparts has given a green signal to the matter and the Prime Minister’s Office has sought details on the matter and this is likely to lead to major political changes in Karnataka.
Amid a political storm over an alleged “cover-up of bitcoin scam”, the opposition Congress has alleged that it involved transactions worth Rs 10,000 crore and two major politicalState officials fail to recover stolen bitcoinAt the center of many doubts. Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah in a series of tweets on Monday demanded that the Chief Minister keep all the details of the investigation before the public. “Where are the 5,000 bitcoins now? Are they recovered or not found yet?” Congress leader asked.
Senior Central Crime Branch (CCB) officials, who arrested Srikrishna in the dark web drugs case in November 2020, only to uncover his hacking exploits, said that they were not able to recover a single bitcoin from him. . The CCB claimed in December 2020 that they had recovered 31 bitcoins worth ₹9 crore, only to later realize that the bitcoins they transferred to government wallets in the presence of experts were not their own, but theirs. Was from a hacked account.
“It only shows how skilled and sly he is. He neither has a bank account nor a mobile phone. We have electronic evidence of their online activities to substantiate our allegations. Lack of recovery of stolen goods is not the norm in every case,” said an official.
stashed away?
The agencies believe that 26-year-old Srikrishna, who is now out on bail, either spent most of the bitcoins he had stolen or may have deposited them in a secret wallet or in offshore accounts which They have failed to uncover.
The state government has written to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Interpol Division of the Central Bureau of Investigation. The ED, which has questioned Srikrishna five times, has also failed to recover any bitcoin from him.
“We suspect that he may have deposited some money to convert bitcoin into hard currency at some offshore location. We have written to several foreign countries where there is such a possibility, but so far to no avail,” a senior ED official said. Has not happened.