CBI books Ahmedabad-based man for cheating, recovers US $9.3 lakh from crypto wallets

New Delhi, Oct 21 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday said that it registered a case against one Ramavat Shaishav aka James Carlson and carried out searches and recovered US $ 9.3 lakh from his crypto wallets.

A CBI spokesperson here said that searches were conducted at the premises of Shaishav in Ahmedabad which led to recovery and seizure of crypto currencies -- Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, USDT, etc worth US $ 9.3 lakh from the crypto wallets and incriminating material.

The official said that during searches, the involvement of two other persons, both residents of Ahmedabad, have also surfaced.

Therefore, searches were also conducted at the premises of said persons which resulted in recovery of mobile phones, laptops containing incriminating material, etc.

The agency said that it was alleged that the said Shaishav contacted a US citizen over phone under a pseudonymous identity of "James Carlson", introducing himself from a Fraud Department of a Multi-National Company falsely informing the victim that someone had been trying to order a computer using Account of the victim (as available on said MNC).

It was further alleged that the accused also misguided the victim that people in 04 different States had used the Social Security Number of the victim to open Accounts of said MNC, the official said.

The CBI also alleged that Shaishav induced the victim to withdraw cash from his bank accounts and deposit the same in bitcoin at RockitCoin ATM Wallet and shared a QR code falsely informing him that the same was opened by US Treasury for the victim.

"The accused also emailed a fake letter dated 20.09.2022 purportedly issued by Federal Trade Commission, US to gain trust of the victim," the agency said, adding that in pursuance of the said inducement, the victim allegedly withdrew an amount of US$ 1,30,000 from his bank accounts on different dates during the period August 30 to September 9 last year and deposited the same in the Bitcoin address provided by the accused.

"Subsequently, the same were fraudulently misappropriated by the accused, thereby defrauding the victim to the extent of US $ 1,30,000. "The inputs were received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, US," the official said.