How a US citizen was duped by Indians of Rs 3.3 cr
Roth was guided by the person to transfer her money to a more "secure account". This man then allegedly opened a cryptocurrency account for Roth and advised her to transfer her money.
3 min read
These offences not only tarnish the image of the nation but also have huge financial repercussions locally as well as globally, said a Delhi court judgeAfter her laptop was allegedly hacked, Lisa Roth, a citizen of the United States, received a flash on her screen. As she contacted the number flashing on the laptop screen, she was allegedly told by the man on the other side — posing as a “Microsoft employee” — that her investments worth $400,000 in her bank account were unsafe.
Roth was guided by the person to transfer her money to a more “secure account”. This man then allegedly opened a cryptocurrency account for Roth and advised her to transfer her money.
After a few weeks, when she logged into this ‘OKcoin’ account, Roth found that her money had been taken away. She then contacted the authorities in the US, and filed a complaint. The complaint was forwarded to Indian authorities.
The CBI then registered an FIR, naming five as accused — Prafful Gupta, Sarita Gupta, Kunal Almadi, Gaurav Pahwa, and Rishabh Dool. The accused, as per officials, allegedly converted the amount to Bitcoins. These were allegedly transferred by Sarita Gupta and Prafful Gupta to their cryptocurrency wallets, and then converted into Rs. 2.27 crore, and liquidated.
After the cryptocurrency was credited in the wallets of Prafful Gupta and Sarita Gupta, it was allegedly sold in the open market and the amounts were credited in 95 different bank accounts which belonged to “dummy entities”, the agency found out.
Then entered the Enforcement Directorate (ED). They arrested Lakshay Vij, who allegedly gave instructions to the accused to dupe Roth.
From the digital data extracted from the cellphone of Prafful Gupta, the agency claimed that a number by the name of ‘LV’ was part of a Whatsapp group, which also had other accused as members.
The ED, represented by Special Public Prosecutor Manish Jain and advocate Ishan Baisla, in a Delhi court alleged that Vij was giving directions to the accused to sell the cryptocurrency and to credit the amount received from the sale to different bank accounts.
Vij’s bail plea in Rouse Avenue Court was rejected after a series of intense arguments.
“Innocent, gullible citizens are duped, cheated of their hard-earned money not only causing financial loss to them but also lifelong trauma. Such criminal acts (of money laundering) and conspiracies are hatched in secrecy and executed in darkness. Further these offences, criminal acts not only tarnish the image of the nation but also have huge financial repercussions locally as well as globally if done on a large scale which only exhaustive investigation can unearth,” said Special Judge Gaurav Rao in a 50-page order on Wednesday while rejecting the bail of the accused.
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