Indian police have confiscated $ 1.2 million bitcoin from a hacker who allegedly hacked a government website, online gaming portals and cryptocurrency exchanges. He had previously been arrested for stealing $ 1.5 million from an Indian state government.
Indian police seize bitcoins from hackers
Central Crime Branch (CCB) police in Bengaluru announced that Rs 9 billion (US $ 1.23 million) of bitcoins were confiscated from a 25-year-old hacker, local media reported on Friday.
Known as Shri Krishna, the hacker is a software engineer and lives in Jayanagar, in the south of Bengaluru. He was arrested on November 18th for using Bitcoins to get drugs over the dark net. Sandeep Patil, Joint Bengaluru (Crime) Police Commissioner, stated during the investigation:
We won 31 bitcoins from Krishna which is worth 9 rupees.
In addition to buying drugs, Patil said the hacker and his friends “also used these bitcoins to lead a lavish life” and “stayed in star hotels and resorts.”
Krishna also hacked the Karnataka government’s e-procurement portal in August 2019 and was booked from the website for stealing 11 rupees.
In addition, a senior executive said Krishna used ransomware to force the owners of the websites he hacked into paying ransom money. “He’s also created Spiegel websites and obtained information about credit or debit cards that were used by people who accessed websites to steal money,” the official said. According to the police, the Indian Express described:
Further research shows that Krishna, along with five friends, hacked three Bitcoin exchanges and ten poker sites by inserting three types of malware into them.
Police added that they “also hacked YE coins (Yearn Finance) Ethereum sites in different countries with a similar mode”.
Noting that the defendant had hacked into various international poker sites and stolen data, Patil added that his team had passed on all relevant information about the case to the companies concerned through Interpol.
After hacking websites and stealing data and money, the defendant converted money into bitcoin and paid it out through an alleged funding partner, Patil described. He added: “The bitcoins were exchanged for money through another defendant, Robin Khandelwal. He deposited the money into Krishna’s bank account after trading the bitcoins through hawala channels. “
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