Questions Raised About Links Between Bengaluru Hacker And Bitcoin Theft In 2016 FBI Polled

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A 26-year-old hacker arrested in Bengaluru last year who claimed to have hacked Bitfinex, a Bitcoin exchange based in the British Virgin Islands, a few years ago, is likely to be a person of interest to the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. (FBI) due to a 2016 police case registered in the United States.

Bengaluru Police arrested Srikrishna Ramesh aka Sriki in November last year in an Internet drug purchase case with Bitcoins and discovered that the accused and his associates were allegedly involved in multiple hacking crimes in India and abroad.

Srikrishna is currently at the center of controversy in Karnataka following claims that Bitcoins in his possession were used to pay police officials and others involved in the investigation of the cases against him.

In a voluntary statement made to the police following his arrest in November 2020, Srikrishna has repeatedly stated that he was involved in a hacking incident at the Bitfinex exchange while he was part of a group of piracy in the Netherlands.

Although the hacker himself only referred to his involvement in a hacking incident in 2015, when a small amount of around 1,500 Bitcoins was stolen from the Bitfinex exchange, questions arise about its alleged connection to an August 2, 2016 hacking incident when nearly 1.2 lakh Bitcoins (then valued at around US $ 70 million and now valued at around US $ 7 billion) were stolen from the Bitfinex exchange .

Shortly after the August 2, 2016 theft, a police complaint was filed by an unidentified plaintiff in the US city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, stating that “his Bitcoin account was hacked and $ 1,300,000 (70,000 $ 000 in Bitcoins) has been stolen ”. The complaint – available in the online archives of the Cambridge City Police Daily Newspapers for September 14, 2016 – allegedly related to the Bitfinex hack of August 2, 2016.

In response to a question from the Indian Express about the status of the case, a Cambridge Police Department official said investigations into the case were being carried out by the FBI.

“The Cambridge resident had an account with a digital asset trading company which was hacked and resulted in the theft of Bitcoins from an unknown number of their account holders. The company notified the FBI and they were investigating the hack. The Cambridge resident could have recouped money from his losses, ”wrote Jeremy Warnick, Cambridge Police Department communications director, in an email response.

Based on a request for information made by The Indian Express under the FBI’s system of freedom of information and privacy laws, the FBI said in a response that it was not ” able to identify the records “concerning the hacking incident of the Bitfinex exchange about which the complaint was lodged in Cambridge. Michael Seidel, an official with the FBI’s information and records dissemination section, said “a search for places reasonably likely to have records” was carried out and “we were unable to identify the records. “on the Bitfinex hacking case.

In a voluntary statement to the police, Srikrishna opened up about the 2015 hack of the Bitfinex bitcoin exchange and illegal access to Bitcoins.

“Bitfinex was my first big Bitcoin exchange hack. The exchange was hacked twice and I was the first person to do so. The second instance [in 2016] was a simple spear phishing attack that led two Israeli hackers working for the military to gain access to one of the employees’ computers, which gave them access to the AWS cloud account, ”Srikrishna told police.

According to his statement, Srikrishna made “approximate profit: 2000 BTC (Bitcoins)” from the Bitfinex hack and blew the entire amount on a “luxury lifestyle”.

The hacker also claimed that he had succeeded on a few occasions in selling the stolen Bitcoins using concealment techniques to avoid detection.

In a further statement in a case where he is accused of hacking a poker gaming site, which is attached to the indictment in the case, Srikrishna claimed that he had voluntarily agreed to donate to the police any Bitcoins in their possession. “I understood the scenario that even if I don’t give them the Bitcoins, they can use forensic methods to find the Bitcoins, after an interview with the investigator. So after the consultations, I voluntarily agreed to donate the Bitcoins that I had kept in various wallets in different cryptocurrencies, ”the statement read.

Bengaluru police, however, have dismissed allegations linking Srikrishna to the Bitcoin heist in 2016.

“He was involved in the theft of small amounts of Bitcoin, not big heists, that’s what we found,” said a senior officer. “He (Srikrishna) has made many claims but they have not been substantiated during investigations,” the official said.

Although Srikrishna did not claim any links to the August 2016 hack, blockchain analysts reported on social media that a large amount of nearly 12,000 Bitcoins from the theft – worth ‘about $ 750 million – had been moved earlier this year.

When the stolen Bitcoins were reportedly moved on April 14 of this year, Srikrishna was in jail in Bangalore and was not released until April 17.

The opposition Congress has linked Srikrishna’s release from prison to the movement of the stolen Bitcoins in 2016, suggesting they were used to pay politicians and police officers.

“In the indictment filed by CCB police, it is recorded that the accused looted 5,000 Bitcoins through unethical hacking. Who owns these Bitcoins now? Did they transfer it to the accounts of investigative agencies? Or are they ignorant? Congress leader Siddaramaiah said on social media.

Police, however, rejected suggestions that Bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex were moved in April from Bengaluru.

“The claim made on Whale Alert (a social media account that tracks Bitcoin’s movements) that 14,682 stolen Bitfinex Bitcoins have been transferred is completely unfounded. There is no indication that he is from Bengaluru,” said police in an official statement on November 12.

While Bengaluru Police wrote to Interpol on April 28, 2021 about the hacker’s alleged crimes, Karnataka Police or Bengaluru Police said they had not heard from international agencies so far.

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