Sources close to hacker Srikrishna Ramesh aka Sriki, which The Hindu spoke to, claimed the hacker was “forced” to transfer bitcoins that he had allegedly stolen from Bitfinex, while in custody in 2020 and 2021.
Sriki reportedly made the same allegations to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the bitcoin scam, following which the team is now investigating the movement of 150 to 170 bitcoins when the hacker was in police and judicial custody, sources in the SIT said.
During the time of the movement of these bitcoins there was a big rally in the price of bitcoins and the worth of the bitcoins that Sriki was allegedly forced to move to benami wallets amounted to around ₹600 crore.
“At this point we have a lot of information and claims. We are trying to corroborate them in such a way that we will be able to prove them in court,” a senior official said.
The SIT has also had some leads on some of the beneficiaries of the scam encashing the proceeds of the swindled bitcoins in local Indian banks.
This is expected to help the police track the money trail from the bitcoins to the banks.
In his voluntary statement, Sriki himself admitted to hacking Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency exchange operated by iFinex Inc and registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Bitfinex was founded in 2012. It was originally a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange, and later added support for other cryptocurrencies. In 2016, Bitfinex reported that hackers stole 1,19,000 coins, then worth $70 million.
The Department of Justice in the United States of America recovered 94,000 coins and arrested a couple identified as Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein.
In Israel, two men were arrested. Sriki has claimed to have been part of the large cyber heist and claimed to have stolen 400 bitcoins.
It is alleged that sleuths from Central Crime Branch (CCB), Bengaluru City police, who arrested Sriki in a darknet drugs case learnt of the stolen bitcoins and allegedly forced him to transfer some of these bitcoins to various wallets.
It is alleged that the coins were moved while he was in judicial custody in Parappana Agrahara Central Prison between December 1, 2020 and 17 April, 2021 and between 7 November, 2021 and 10 November, 2021.
The SIT has already questioned several officials posted with the CCB and Parappana Agrahara Prison during these periods.
