Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in coordination with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), busted a virtual assets and bullion supported transnational cybercrime network that targeted foreign victims, after simultaneous raids at seven locations in Mumbai and Kolkata.
The federal crime investigation agency, as part of ongoing 'Operation CHAKRA-III' dismantled a sophisticated cyber crime network supported by virtual assets and bullion that had been targeting victims since 2022.
Case Registered Against Key Accused Vishnu Rathi
The International Operations Division of CBI had registered a case earlier on Monday against the key accused Vishnu Rathi, and launched investigation into the conspiracy targeting US citizens between June and August 2022 by gaining unauthorised remote access to the victims' computer and bank account on pretext of offering technical support services.
“The accused falsely informed the US based victims that their bank accounts had been compromised and that the bank funds were at risk, manipulating the victims into transferring USD 453,953 to cryptocurrency wallets controlled by them,” explained a senior CBI official.
It is not clear whether the money transferred to cryptocurrency wallets belonged to one or several victims. CBI sleuths swiftly conducted extensive searches at multiple locations linked to the accused and raided locations across Mumbai and Kolkata over Thursday and Friday to seize incriminating data to expose a transnational cyber-enabled financial crimes network.
About The Things Seized
The searches at the residential premises of Rathi led to seizure of 57 gold bars of 100 gm each, cash amount of Rs 16,00,000, mobile phones and laptop used to manage crypto currencies, details of lockers and other incriminating documents.
Mastermind Rathi, who is from Mumbai, was arrested during the raids last week. Future operations will identify victims of the cyber crime in coordination with FBI and other law enforcement agencies in multiple countries through INTERPOL for follow up on leads.
About Operation CHAKRA-III
The operation CHAKRA-III initiated by CBI to combat and dismantle organised cyber enabled financial crime networks through a globally coordinated law enforcement response leveraging INTERPOL channels has shown encouraging results with arrests of several crime syndicates and seizure of crypto assets.
