‘US citizens lost over $20 million in fraud calls, India’s reputation lowered’: CBI to Delhi court

The court was dealing with the anticipatory bail of one of the directors of the company, Sanket Bhadresh.

His lawyer Jai Kumar Bhardwaj argued CBI has already collected evidence in digital form during raids conducted at various premises of the applicant and seized the mobile phones and servers of Bhadresh as well as his employees. He also submitted, during the investigation, Bhadresh had also provided the passwords of these devices to the investigating officer and as such, there is no need for his custodial interrogation.

The CBI said Bhadresh’s custodial interrogation is required to recover the illegal proceeds of crime and also to ascertain other key members of the syndicate present in India and foreign countries to unearth the larger conspiracy. The agency also submitted Bhadresh by “way of his alleged acts not only committed the economic offence but also lowered the repute of the country in the eyes of foreign nationals”.

The CBI has said Greg Haberman, a US resident, was cheated by this company, whose employees posed as officials from the Urban Housing and Development in 2017 and he was told that he had qualified for a $60,000 grant. Haberman paid $23,000 to the scammers via iTunes gift cards and Western Union wire Transfers.

Special Judge Sanjeev Kumar Malhotra while denying anticipatory bail said according to CBI’s allegations the applicant has “not revealed the passwords for the Cryptocurrency hardware wallet recovered from his home which is believed to have contained proceeds of crime and illegal transaction and his custodial interrogation is required for the purpose of confronting him with the evidence seized from his own devices and that of his employees.”