Bitcoin scam: Sriki sold 130 bitcoins, trader Robin paid over ₹24 crore

This is fourth story in the text series on Bitcoin scam which the blrpost.com is publishing based on the chargesheets filed by the SIT

Bengaluru

Multi-crore Bitcoin scam accused Srikrishna Ramesh, alias Sriki, sold 130 bitcoins (BTC) to cryptocurrency trader Robin Khandelwal between 2017 and 2020, according to the chargesheet filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT). The list of transactions recorded by Khandelwal is included in the document.

The SIT, constituted on July 3, 2023, recently submitted three chargesheets after investigating the case.

According to the chargesheet filed in Case No. 153/2020 at Cottonpet Police Station, Sriki sold 130 bitcoins to Khandelwal. The SIT discovered this after Khandelwal provided a voluntary statement to the team.

The list of payments submitted by Khandelwal shows that, in exchange for the bitcoins, he transferred money to over 50 different bank accounts of Sriki’s friends. Payments were also made to clear hotel bills and other expenses. A total of 56 transactions were recorded by the SIT. Khandelwal paid over ₹24 crore in total.

The value of bitcoin rose from about ₹63,000 in early 2017 to ₹19.9 lakh in 2020. The highest payments recorded was ₹59 lakh, transferred to miscellaneous accounts shared by Sriki. Khandelwal also paid ₹45 lakh to the current account of Friendly Automotive Private Limited to book a Porsche. In his statement, Khandelwal said he paid ₹11.80 lakh from his own funds to Chipsan Aviation Private Limited to book a chartered flight from Chandigarh to Mumbai.

Sriki and Robin

Khandelwal’s voluntary police statement reveals that he first came into contact with Sriki in 2017 through the website LocalBitcoins.com. Khandelwal had registered on the platform in 2015 for trading after his father’s rice mill was seized by a bank due to a loan default. He was carrying out peer-to-peer (P2P) trading on the site.

Sriki, using the bitcoin ID ‘Sriki’, began trading with him. After a few transactions, the two started chatting through the website’s chat window. Khandelwal grew closer to Sriki on this virtual platform, as Sriki was selling coins in advance, helping him with liquidity. Eventually, Khandelwal learned Sriki’s full name and continued conversations via Facebook and Wickr. In 2018, both met in person for the first time at Hotel ITC Gardenia in Bengaluru.

Khandelwal was also trading P2P on multiple platforms, including Remitano, Binance, OKX, Huobi, WazirX, Zebpay, and Paxful.