2 Merchant Navy Officers Among 3 Arrested In Cryptocurrency Theft Case: Police

Two merchant navy officers were among three arrested in a cryptocurrency theft case and around Rs 2.5 crore, including Rs 1.25 crore in cash and the remaining in digital currencies, was recovered, police said on Friday.

The arrests were made on a complaint from a woman earlier this month. She claimed that around six Bitcoins (BTC) were stolen from her cryptocurrency wallet on July 4, Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO) Hemant Tiwari said in a statement. IFSO stands for Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations and is the Delh Police's cyber cell.

"The three accused were identified as Sherry Sharma, 27, and Ashish Sharma, 24, both merchant navy officers, and Mokshi, 20, a call centre employee," he said. Tiwari said sensing the gravity of the offence, a dedicated team led by Inspector Avdesh was constituted under the supervision of ACP Vijay Gahlawat to identify and apprehend the culprits.

The team was given the task of establishing and analysing the money trail of complex crypto transactions made from the wallet of the complainant and to further trace the trail of the stolen cryptocurrency, he said.

Upon analysing transaction details of the complainant, it was found that the accused initiated multiple small transactions to avoid detection and tracking, and the BTCs were quickly moved through a series of "mixers", making it challenging to trace the money trail, the statement said.

"Mixers" are a service that mixes potentially identifiable or "tainted" cryptocurrency funds with others to hide the funds original source.

The team identified six wallets in which the stolen BTC were transferred and on the basis of technical analysis and local intelligence, the mastermind of the alleged theft, Mokshi, was traced and arrested from Uttam Nagar on July 19, Tiwari said.

During sustained interrogation, she disclosed details of her associates who were arrested from Haryana and Delhi, he said.

Mokshi was a close friend of the complainant and knew she had a cryptocurrency wallet, police said.

They said along with Sherry and Ashish, she planned to steal the complainant's cryptocurrency.

Mokshi knew that the complainant was going abroad and persuaded her that she accompany her to the airport, police said. On their way to the airport, Mokshi took the mobile-phone of the complainant under the pretext of accessing the navigation app. She transferred the BTCs from the complainant wallet to other crypto wallets, he said.

The accused knew the complainant would not be aware of the theft as her phone would be either switched off or on flight mode while she was travelling, police said and added this gave them time to make transfers. They transferred the stolen BTCs to multiple wallets and also encashed some, they said.

With swift action into the case, the team managed to recovered about 90 per cent of the stolen money, the officer said.

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