ED yet to file second chargesheet against Bengaluru hacker Srikrishna in Crypto case | Bangalore News
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is yet to file a second chargesheet against Bengaluru-based hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki, 29, and his associates in an alleged cryptocurrency hacking and money laundering case.
The ED filed a chargesheet on July 3 against Sriki and 18 others for laundering Rs 11.55 crore stolen from the Karnataka e-procurement portal in 2019. This was under ECIR/BGZO/04/2020 registered on January 9, 2020, during a state CID probe.
However, no chargesheet has been submitted in the second ED case – ECIR/BGZO/1/2021 – registered on January 4, 2021, based on a Bengaluru CCB probe into Sriki’s alleged hacking of crypto exchanges and websites.
Sources said that, unlike the e-procurement hacking case, no proceeds of crime were seized in the CCB crypto case. Attachment of such funds is required before an ED chargesheet is filed.
“There has to be attachment of the proceeds of crime before an ED charge sheet is filed,” sources said.
The CCB police had taken up the case on Srikrishna’s own admission of involvement in hacking crypto exchanges and online poker sites but had not seized any proceeds of crime. The CCB initially reported the seizure of 31 Bitcoins valued at Rs nine crore from the hacker but it was found he had misled them about possessing cryptocurrency on an exchange.
In the e-procurement case, the ED’s recent chargesheet states that Sriki and aides hacked the portal and transferred Rs 10.5 crore and Rs 1.05 crore to two entities. It has seized assets worth Rs 1.43 crore linked to the Rs 11.5 crore theft.
The chargesheet details how the hackers laundered the stolen funds via hawala routes. But in the absence of seized crypto assets, the second PMLA case has hit a roadblock.
Sriki’s alleged cyber crimes have sparked a political row in Karnataka. The new state government has ordered an SIT probe, allowing the CCB case to be reopened. The SIT began investigating just before the ED filed its e-procurement hacking chargesheet this month.