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Topic: [2017-04-10]Rogue Indian Drug Agent Caught Stealing Bitcoins (Read 402 times)

legendary
Activity: 2016
Merit: 1107
India is a fun place it seems,for a policeman in India to steal 110.000$ (in 2016 prices) and get half of it
should have made him a wealthy person,a very wealthy person by India's standards
wonder if he "retired" instantly or kept working and how did he get caught
235 bitcoins in 2017 prices would have been enough for him to fly to any country in the world and buy property and new identity
newbie
Activity: 11
Merit: 0
It is not too bad he got caught.  (Assuming a fair trial is to follow)   Could you imagine how effective governments and their constituents could be at rooting out corruption if all their confiscated funds and tax receipts were on the bitcoin blockchain? 
legendary
Activity: 3080
Merit: 1353
If you would remember, their is one Indian politician who raised concerns on the growth of bitcoin in their country and wants the Indian government to declare bitcoin illegal their. With this kind of news, justification of such ban will be automatic I guess. But I hope Indian government will used better judgement and be fair in bitcoin because such crimes as mentioned could be also accomplished even with fiat. Bitcoin should not be blamed for such crimes and criminals will always find a ways to commit illegal ways with or without bitcoin technology.

The officer thought that he can get away with withdrawing the bitcoin, but he didn't know that bitcoin is pseudo-anoymous that's why the Indian police traced who withdraw it. Unfortunately for the officer, it was greed that made him to do it. Maybe he was bribe by the accused drug dealers to get the money and split it between the two of them. Too bad he was caught.
sr. member
Activity: 420
Merit: 250
An investigator from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of India has been accused of stealing bitcoins frozen from a 2015 drug bust where some 470 bitcoins (approx. $571,000 in current prices) were confiscated.

The NCB, essentially the Indian counterpart of the United States’ Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), has alleged that one of its own agents involved in a previous drug bust has forged documents to withdraw frozen bitcoins. The case draws parallels to that of DEA agent Carl Force who plead guilty to bitcoin theft and extortion of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht during the DEA investigation of the Silk Road marketplace.

Notably, the local report adds that the case is the first ever instance of bitcoin misappropriation fraud in India.


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The accused officer, Satyendra Kumar Singh, was a part of an investigation that led to a seizure of psychotropic drugs in mid-2015. The drugs, primarily banned anti-depressants and stimulants, were sent to US-based customers with transactions presumably made through a darknet drug-market.

Singh froze nine bitcoin accounts belonging to the drug dealer in June 2015. The frozen accounts contained a total of 470 bitcoins, approx. $110,000 at the time.

A year later, the NCB checked on the status of those accounts and discovered that they were untied and withdrawn by Singh. An internal investigation began.

Speaking to the Times of India, a crime branch official involved in the investigation revealed:

After the accused got bail from the Gujarat high court in 2016, the NCB sought a rerport on the status of the bitcoin accounts and leared that Singh had authorized the unfreezing of the accounts in July 2016 through a signed and stamped letter on an NCB letterhead. As no such authorization was given in the case, Singh came under the scanner and an internal inquiry was begun against him.

The investigation revealed that Singh had colluded with one of the accused drug dealers to forge official documents demanding the release of the frozen bitcoins from accounts at an unnamed bitcoin exchange. The bitcoins were released and transferred to other accounts before they were turned into fiat cash.

For his involvement, Singh pocketed 50% of the 470 bitcoins at approximately $280 per coin in July 2016 prices. Today, bitcoin is valued at $1,200 per coin.

Singh has since been suspended by the NCB and is currently under arrest. An investigation into the transactions of misappropriated bitcoins and Singh’s role in the crime is underway.
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/rogue-indian-drug-agent-caught-stealing-bitcoins/
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