Simply put
- Chirag Tomar, imprisoned in the U.S. for a $20 million cryptocurrency scam involving a counterfeit Coinbase website, has had $4.8 million (42.8 crores) in assets seized by the Indian Bureau of Enforcement.
- Authorities allege that Tomar executed a complex phishing scheme, routing revenues to Indian bank accounts through P2P platforms.
- The Enforcement Directorate has frozen 18 properties in Delhi and bank accounts, with an investigation into the laundering efforts still in progress.
The Indian Enforcement Bureau has seized $4.8 million (42.8 crores) in assets linked to citizens currently in a U.S. prison for defrauding crypto investors through a phony Coinbase site.
On Tuesday, 18 properties in Delhi were frozen, along with bank accounts associated with 31-year-old Chirag Tomar, extending to accounts owned by his relatives and business partners.
“Fraud in the crypto space is increasingly untenable. Those committing these acts will be found, revealed, and punished,” commented Sudhakar Lakshmanaraja, founder of the blockchain education initiative, Decryption.
“The Indian government possesses the necessary tools, resolve, and global cooperation to tackle financial crime in the digital asset realm,” he added.
Tomar was sentenced to five years in federal prison for orchestrating a phishing scam aimed at popular cryptocurrency exchange platforms back in October 2024.
His illicit operations involved fabricating fake Coinbase websites to deceive users into disclosing their account credentials.
Investigators found that tomar laundered stolen digital assets amounting to approximately $72 million (600 crores) across various trading platforms before converting them into Indian rupees.
His team manipulated search engine results to elevate fraudulent websites over legitimate ones, increasing the odds of unsuspecting individuals falling victim during routine searches.
“The counterfeit site was almost identical to the original, save for contact details,” the Enforcement Directorate stated.
Users who attempted to log in were met with a false error notification, advising them to call a sham customer service number.
Scammers, posing as Coinbase agents, could persuade victims to share security codes and gain remote access to drain crypto accounts.
Tomar reportedly funneled these illicit earnings into luxury goods, including high-end watches, sports cars like Lamborghinis and Porsches, and overseas travel.
The operation persisted for over two years, concluding with Tomar’s arrest at an Atlanta airport in December 2023 upon his return to the U.S. He pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charges in May 2024.
The Enforcement Directorate initiated an investigation after hearing about Tomar’s U.S. arrest through a news article.
In February, a coordinated effort took place across Delhi and Mumbai to further investigate the money trail.
“This ongoing investigation suggests that there may still be more seizures or arrests as authorities continue tracing assets related to international fraudulent operations,” the agency stated.
