Bitcoin scam: indictment reveals indiscriminate hacking by ‘Sriki’

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The main defendant in the controversial Bitcoin case, Srikrishna Ramesh, aka Sriki, has hacked several cryptocurrency trading platforms and stolen thousands of bitcoins over the past five to six years.

According to the indictment viewed by DH, the accused also hacked several poker game portals and illegally won cash prizes. In addition, he is accused of deploying ransomware on a few poker game portals and extorting several crores.

The affair caused a stir in political and police circles. The first indictment against the accused was filed on February 22, 2021, where authorities charged him and four others with various cybercrimes.

Sriki, a blackhat hacker, started hacking computers during his high school years after being promoted to moderator of a hacker community. Over the next decade, he gained expertise by penetrating various websites that exchange bitcoin in several countries such as the United States, France, and Bangladesh.

Sriki had no bank account and all of his bitcoin transactions and other money earned from the hack were through Robin Khandelwal, another accused. In a police statement, Sriki claimed he gave Robin bitcoins worth over Rs 8 crore, adding that he had private keys in his cloud account for more bitcoins he stole.

Some of the websites hacked by the defendants include BTC2pm.me – where people exchange bitcoin for cash, Havelock Investment – a stock trading platform for bitcoin users, Paytiz – a Bangladeshi stock exchange, MPEX – an illegal cryptocurrency trading platform, Mixexchage – a Ukrainian platform among others.

Illegal earnings

While it is unclear what illegal gains were made by hacking other websites, Sriki claimed he infiltrated a game called RuneScape as a teenager and won around $ 1 million.

Tip.it and Sythe – the two portals linked to the game – were hacked by him for illegal winnings worth $ 1.6 million.

His first bitcoin exchange hack was from Bitfinex, from which he stole 2,000 bitcoins, each worth around $ 100 to $ 200 at the time (Rs 7,000 to 14,000). The current value of a bitcoin is $ 61,236 or Rs 45.83 lakh.

Sriki also hacked Bitcointalk.org, BTC-e.com, and Bitcentral exchanges and took home around $ 3-3.5 million. According to him, all the money made in this case was spent on drugs and a luxurious lifestyle.

(With contributions from Akram Mohammed)

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