Police in India has arrested two crypto experts that took advantage to divert around 1300 Bitcoins from seized wallets to their personal accounts.
The accused cyber-crime experts, Pankaj Ghode and Ravindranath Patil worked on investigating two cases of multimillion-dollar bitcoin Ponzi schemes in 2018.
1300 Bitcoins Missing
The two experts assisted the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Pune. The cyber cell of Pune police has confirmed that around 1,300 bitcoins are missing from the wallets of cyber experts Ghode and Patil.
Following an investigation that started in April 2021, the cyber police arrested the suspects. The forces seized many mobiles, MacBooks, hard disks, tabs, laptops, CDs, and other items from their possession on charges of stealing bitcoins for their financial gains while assisting the police during the investigation.
On Monday, the Cyber Crime Cell of Pune Police filed a 4,400-page charge sheet against two cyber experts. According to Deputy commissioner of police Bhagyashree Navtake, Patil has acknowledged stealing 237 bitcoins. Ghode is responsible for almost 900 missing bitcoins. In total, the police have reportedly seized over $770,000 in 34 different cryptocurrencies as they investigated an alleged discrepancy of 900 bitcoins.
Prominent Cyber-security Experts
Patil and Ghode are currently in judicial custody in Yerawada Central Jail in Pune. Officials have stated that Patil was an IPS officer for a couple of years before leaving.
Since then, he has been working as a cyber crime expert. He assisted various police entities and investigating agencies and trained the police on crypto-crime. Ghode has worked as a cyber security expert and operated multiple firms, including some based abroad.
The accused officers are believed to manipulate the screenshots of bitcoin recovery and submit them as proof to the police as part of their investigation report.