In a shocking revelation, international hacker Srikrishna Ramesh, also known as Sriki, who is involved in a series of high-profile Bitcoin scams, led a luxurious lifestyle during his stay in Karnataka. According to the charge sheet accessed by India Today, Srikrishna, who has been missing since being granted bail, indulged in expensive meals and enjoyed massages while staying at a lavish hotel. His extravagant expenses amounted to crores of rupees.

The charge sheet further reveals that there were substantial online transfers made to Srikrishna’s bank account over a period of three months (from May to July 2019). Additionally, Srikrishna paid hotel bills totaling more than Rs 7 crore during the course of three years. The multi-crore Bitcoin scam involving Srikrishna had caused a political uproar at the national level in 2021 and 2022, implicating senior police officers and several politicians.

Meanwhile, the state government led by Siddaramaiah is likely to hand over the case to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Currently, the prime accused in the Bitcoin scam, Sriki, has been evading the police, but a search operation is underway to apprehend him.

Who is Srikrishna Ramesh?

Srikrishna Ramesh, a 26-year-old individual, is accused of hacking “three bitcoin exchanges, 10 poker websites, and four other websites, including the Government of Karnataka’s e-procurement website.” According to Srikrishna’s confession to the police, he acquired the basics of hacking at the young age of eight.

In his statement to the police in 2019, Srikrishna claimed responsibility for hacking the Bitfinex exchange twice during his stay in the Netherlands. He said, “Bitfinex was my first major Bitcoin exchange hack. The exchange was hacked twice, and I was the first person to do so. The second instance involved a simple spear-phishing attack, which gave two Israeli hackers working for the army access to an employee’s computer and, subsequently, the AWS cloud account.”

Hacker Sriki had swindled government portals of Rs 11.55 crore

In 2019, Sriki hacked the state government’s e-procurement website and managed to steal Rs 11.5 crore, as stated in a chargesheet filed by the police in 2021. CID officials, who investigated the case, blocked 14 bank accounts belonging to Sriki and NGOs involved in the fraudulent activities, and they successfully recovered Rs 1.44 crore, which was subsequently confiscated. Sriki hacked the government portals and transferred the money to the bank accounts of the NGOs Udaygram Vikash Sanstha in Nagpur and Nimmi Enterprises in Uttar Pradesh. Subsequent investigations revealed that Sriki had received money from these NGOs.

How did the Bitcoin scam come to light?

On November 18, 2020, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police arrested Sriki in connection with the Sandalwood drugs case. During the investigation, it was discovered that Sriki had purchased drugs through international dealers on a dark website using bitcoins. Interrogation of Sriki further revealed that he had hacked several websites. The CCB officials had initially claimed to have seized 31 bitcoins worth Rs 9 crore from Sriki’s crypto wallet. However, the then commissioner, Kamal Pant, stated that no coins were confiscated and alleged that the bitcoins in Sriki’s wallet were transferred to different wallets, and crucial evidence was destroyed.

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