Crypto crime: Pune police recovers over Rs 84 cr worth of Bitcoins

The Pune Police Department has recovered 237 Bitcoins taken by two cyber specialists who were arrested in 2018 for stealing cryptocurrency while assisting authorities in the GainBitcoin scam.

Earlier this month, the Pune police's cybercrime division detained two specialists, Pankaj Ghode and Ravindranath Patil as well as an ex-IPS officer from the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, following an exhaustive investigation that began in April 2021. In 2018, Ghode and Patil aided a Pune police Special Investigations squad in uncovering the GainBitcoin crypto scam.

Ghode and Patil had transferred a substantial amount of cryptocurrency assets to their own cryptocurrency wallets.

The two are charged with faking screenshots of cryptocurrency wallets in order to launder money. With the cooperation of Ghode and Patil, the Pune police seized 241.46 Bitcoins, 452 Bitcoin cash units, and 94 Ethereum units from the 17 suspects arrested in the 2018 case.

The 237 Bitcoins were discovered in crypto wallets linked to Ravindranath Patil.

GainBitcoin was a multi-level marketing scheme that took Bitcoin deposits and promised 10 per cent returns, in Bitcoin. But the investors were not paid back in Bitcoin but in a token called MCAP, which was created by the promoters of the fraud.

Currently, Bitcoin is trading at 35,76,630 as of 14:00 IST as per CoinMarketCap data, which means the recovered bitcoins are worth 84,88,88,259.00 as per recent exchange rates.

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