ED raids in Rs 600 crore crypto conversion case

 

 

 

THE ED on Monday said it has frozen bank deposits worth more than Rs 2 crore after conducting multi-state searches against an Indian national accused of illegal conversion of cryptocurrency worth around Rs 600 crore through various Indian crypto exchanges. The searches were undertaken on February 20 at Delhi, Jaipur in Rajasthan and Mumbai in Maharashtra under FEMA. The case pertains to the “conversion” of cryptocurrency worth around Rs 600 crore at various Indian crypto exchanges and the subsequent transfer of the funds to the beneficiaries, the federal agency said in a statement.

 

“ED investigation was initiated on the basis of a newspaper report that an Indian national named Chirag Tomar was undergoing prison sentence in the USA for stealing more than USD 20 million from hundreds of victims through the use of fake or spoofed websites mimicking the cryptocurrency exchange website Coinbase,” it said. Tomar, sentenced to prison by a court in the US in November last year, could not be contacted immediately for his response to the allegations made against him by the ED. Probe found, the agency said, trusted websites were “spoofed” in such a way by search engine optimisation that when the website would be searched, the spoofed website would appear at the top. The spoofed website appeared “exactly similar” to the trusted website except for the contact details, the investigation found. When users entered the login credentials, the spoofed website would show it wrong. Therefore, the users would contact the number given on the spoofed website which would eventually connect them to the designated call centre “managed” by Tomar.