A year-long probe by Pune police’s Cyber crime cell is unraveling how two cyber experts, including an ex-IPS officer, allegedly siphoned off huge sums of cryptocurrency from the wallets of the accused arrested in a multimillion dollar bitcoin ponzi scheme in 2018, for which they assisted Pune Police. The latest probe also raises key questions including that of the oversight or possible involvement of police officials at the time.
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A Special Investigation Team (SIT) from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Pune Police investigated two of the several offences linked to a cryptocurrency ponzi scheme registered in the country in 2018. Among a total of 17 persons arrested by the Pune Police were mastermind brothers Amit and Vivek Bharadwaj. The brothers, through their multiple companies, allegedly cheated thousands of people across India by promising high returns on cryptocurrency investments. Amit was granted bail by the Supreme Court in 2019 and is said to have died of an illness earlier this year. At one point in time, the amount linked to cases against him and his accomplices was pegged at 87,000 bitcoins.
Amit and his accomplices were booked in multiple cases by police across India and also faced money laundering charges brought by the Enforcement Directorate. Two of these pan-India cases were registered with Pune City police. Cyber crime experts Pankaj Ghode (38) and Ravindranath Patil (45) helped Pune Police’s SIT back in 2018. Officials have said that Patil is an IPS officer of 2004 batch of the J&K cadre and left the service a couple of years after joining it. Since then, he has been working as a Cyber crime expert and has assisted various police entities and investigating agencies in their cyber crime probes. He has also conducted training of police and other agencies on crimes related to cryptocurrency in the recent past. Ghode has also worked as a cyber expert in the past and now operates multiple firms, an official said.
Pune City Cyber police on Saturday arrested Ghode and Patil after a probe that had started around April 2021. Officials said one of the complainants in the 2018 cases investigated by the Pune Police had approached officer Additional Director General (ADG) of Police for EOW of Maharashtra and had alleged wrongdoing on the part of cyber experts involved in the probe. The Pune Police had concluded the probe in 2020 saying nothing was found against the cyber experts. However, the office of ADG EOW rejected the report and sought a fresh probe. Sources have told The Indian Express that as a part of the fresh probe, the first of the clues of malpractice by Ghode and Patil started surfacing around April 2021, leading to a meticulous and secret probe against these cyber experts who had been closely working with police and have many highly placed contacts within the force.
The probe involved detailed work on cyber forensics by a team led by Deputy Commissioner of Police Bhagyashree Navatake. Probe has now revealed that Ghode and Patil diverted a significant chunk of cryptocurrency funds from the wallets used by the accused in the 2018 to their own and that of their accomplices. They prepared forged screenshots of the blockchain wallets for the purpose of the probe at the time, the probe has now revealed. From the accused in the 2018 case, the Pune Police had seized 241.46 bitcoins, 452 bitcoin cash units and 94 ethereum units.
“The investigation has till now traced 60 bitcoins in the wallets linked to the suspects, believed to be siphoned from the accused in the 2018 case. Some of the cryptocurrency has been liquidated in bank accounts in foreign countries and large chunks have been funnelled through multiple companies established by the suspects. We hope to trace more cryptocurrency siphoned and stashed by the suspects to the tune of multiple of hundreds in bitcoins and other blockchain units.” said a source involved in the probe. The price of one bitcoin was in the range of Rs 30 lakh and Rs two lakh for one ethereum unit as on Tuesday.
Another officer who is a part of the probe said, “We have also questioned the police officers who conducted the probe in two cases in 2018 and others who supervised them. We are looking at possible oversight, or even more collusion on the part of some of these officers that helped Patil and Ghode. We hope to unearth a wider conspiracy that involves an elaborate money laundering web.