ED Arrests Key Hacker Sriki In Bengaluru Crypto Money Laundering Case After Multi-Site Raids

Bengaluru: In continuation with raids in 12 places, including the house of sitting Congress MLA N A Harris and grandson of former Rajya Sabha MP K Rehaman Khan, the Directorate of Enforcement has arrested key hacker Srikrishna alias Sriki and two others.

The two others have been identified as Robin Khandewala and Manish Hegde and the ED officials have produced the three before the magistrate and taken them for 10 days custody.

On April 20, the ED raided premises belonging to two sons of Harris -- Mohammad Nalapath and Omar Nalapath and also the premises of Aquib Khan, son of former Union Minister Rehaman Khan. This was in connection with multiple FIRs filed by CID, which stumbled upon large scale money laundering and also hacking of a Karnataka government procurement gateway and siphoning of crores of rupees during COVID. The money was transferred to multiple accounts, before being converted into cryptocurrency.

During the course of investigation after April 20, the ED officials realised that Sriki had tried hacking into the server of an US based multinational company. Even after the April 20 raid, Sriki had continued his effort to hack the same company and the ED officials decided to arrest him.

The investigation is based on multiple FIRs and chargesheets filed by Karnataka police in a 2017 case, where Srikrishna Ramesh and his associates had hacked national and international websites, theft of bitcoins, extortion and violated provisions of Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.

The investigation under PMLA has revealed the modus operandi by the accused persons, which includes hacking of websites./wallets to stael virtual digital assets (VDAs), data/money (Proceeds of crime), sale of stolen VDAs were routed through crypto trading platforms. The sale proceeds were layered by transferring them through bank accounts. These sale proceeds were used by Srikrishna and his associates forperonal benefit.

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Though the dark market knew about Sriki alias Srikrishna Ramesh since 2016, he came to light only during COVID-19 period. The government procurement gateway was hacked and the money was transferred to multiple bank accounts and was invested in cryptocurrency. The investigation was handed over to the CID.

When the CID sleuths tracked down Sriki, they realised that they were sitting on a gold mine. As the investigation progressed with many more such hacking and procurement of VDAs, the investigation started losing track. Though the names of big and powerful people cropped up during the investigation, the CID later filed chargesheet only in procurement gateway hacking case against Sriki and kept quiet.

However, based on the CID investigations, even the ED had registered a case and was conducting a parallel investigation. On Monday, the ED conducted its first raid regarding the ring involving Sriki in Money Laundering through cryptocurrency.