New Delhi: Following the arrest of the prime accused Srikrishna Ramesh also known as Sriki along with four of his associates, the controversial Karnataka Bitcoin scam case made the headlines once again. Reportedly, Sriki has hacked into multiple cryptocurrency trading platforms and allegedly acquired thousands of Bitcoins over the past five to six years.
According to the reports by Deccan Herald, the charge sheet of the accused states that he has also hacked into multiple poker gaming portals and illegally won several cash prizes. Further, he is also charged for deploying ransomware on a few poker gaming platforms and extracting several crores.
Now the case has created storms amongst the politicians and police circles. Besides, the first charge sheet was filed against the criminals on February 21, 2021.
On Thursday Chief Minister of Karnataka, Basavaraj Bommai said that the probe regarding the Bitcoin scam case has been concluded from the government’s side and now it has been handed over to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). “The case was handed over to ED, CBI since it has inter-state ramifications,” he said.
Sriki, a blackhat hacker, started his career in hacking in his high-school days after he was promoted as the moderator of the hacking community. Over the years, he gained the knowledge of hacking into various websites that are involved with cryptocurrency trading in several countries such as the USA, France, and Bangladesh.
Reportedly, Sriki did not possess any bank account and all the illegal transactions of Bitcoins and other monies were made via Robin Khandelwal, another accused of the case. During interrogation, he stated to police that he had given Robin Bitcoins worth over Rs 8 crore. He further added that he has private keys to the cloud account for more Bitcoins he stole.
Websites that were hacked by Sriki include BTC2pm.me, Havelock Investment, Paytiz, MPEX, Mixexchage among others.
His first Bitcoin exchange hack was of Bitfinex, from which he stole 2,000 bitcoins, each trading around $100-200 at that time (Rs 7,000-14,000).
