Karnataka Bitcoin scam: Charge sheet reveals indiscriminate hacking by 'Sriki'

The prime accused in the controversial Bitcoin case Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki hacked into multiple cryptocurrency trading platforms and made away with thousands of bitcoins over the past five-six years.

According to the charge sheet accessed by DH, the accused also hacked into multiple poker gaming portals and won cash prizes illegally. Further, he is accused of deploying ransomware on a few poker gaming portals and extorting several crores.

The case has caused ripples among the political and police circles. The first charge sheet against the accused was filed on February 22, 2021, where authorities have accused him and four others of various cybercrimes.

Sriki, a blackhat hacker, started hacking computers during his high school days after being promoted as the moderator of a hacking community. Over the next decade, he gained expertise in breaking into various websites that trade bitcoins in several countries such as USA, France and Bangladesh.

Sriki did not have any bank accounts and all his transactions of bitcoins and other monies earned by hacking were via Robin Khandelwal, another accused. In a statement to the police, Sriki claimed that he had given Robin bitcoins worth more than Rs 8 crore, adding that he had private keys in his cloud account for more bitcoins he stole.

Among the websites hacked by the accused include BTC2pm.me - where people exchange bitcoins for money, Havelock Investment - a stock trading platform for bitcoin users, Paytiz - a Bangladeshi exchange, MPEX - an illegal cryptocurrency trading platform, Mixexchage - a Ukrainian platform among others.

Illegal gains

While the illegal gains made by hacking into other websites is not clear, Sriki claimed to have infiltrated a game called RuneScape as an early teenager and made around $1 million.

Tip.it and Sythe - both portals related to the game - were hacked by him to make illegal gains worth $1.6 million.

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

Sriki also hacked Bitcointalk.org, BTC-e.com and Bitcentral exchanges and made away with around $3-3.5 million. All the money earned in this case, according to him, was splurged on drugs and a luxurious lifestyle.

(With inputs from Akram Mohammed)