A man has been arrested in India for money laundering in crypto more than $1 million worth of digital assets to a wallet he owns with someone based in Pakistan. The accused, identified as Chetan Gangani, was apprehended by the sleuths for operating a cybercrime racket that routed money to the crypto digital wallet.
It is understood that the arrest is part of a blanket operation to target mule bank accounts. When a cybercriminal is ready to transfer illicit money, they do so through mule bank accounts and often through more than just one account at a time, in order to obfuscate the source and destination of the funds. Typically these occur before the money is funneled out of the country via digital wallets, or otherwise. But in this instance the suspect attempted to move the funds outside of the country through a digital wallet.
The suspect was linked to six others who had been arrested, Indian police said. His arrest was fresh, the others had been arrested on November 3 under a drive by cops from three states of the region. The action was carried out at various locations including Morbi, Surendranagar, Surat and Amreli districts. The gang has been charge sheeted for allegedly channelising seven illegal transactions of over Rs. 200 crore to criminals in Dubai through a network of more than 100 mule accounts.
Money Laundering In Crypto
The Indian national also helped the members of the gang in converting crore into various digital forms or USDT, police said, adding that it was then transferred to the PAK based digital wallet. Gangani sent the money using his crypto wallet BitGet, which he had been doing through the app for more than four months. According to the officials, the Pakistan-based wallet which was receiving these funds had a balance of Rs 29 crore out of which Rs 10 crore was from Gujarat.
The thieves offered him a 0.10% commission on every USDT he transferred to the wallet, the police said. They claimed that others arrested in the case also formed more than 100 mule accounts for the cyber criminals and they were confined to Gujarat operations. Filed stimulating the accounts were used in 386 instances, including digital arrests, task frauds, investment frauds, loan fraud and part-time job scams.
Commenting on the arrest, Harsh Sanghavi deputy chief minister of Gujarat -said that the network of cyber criminals across border has been successfully curtailed by CID crime division. “In a significant development the Gujarat Cyber Crime Centre of Excellence has busted a huge ‘Mule Account’ network spanning across districts including Morbi, Surendranagar, Surat and Savarkundla with direct financial connections to Pakistan,” he said in his statement.
According to Sanghavi, Indian police’s cybercrime division meticulously followed the money trail over multiple layers. He said the thieves were clever, however, and the division was able to trace back the Indian accounts that had sent out these funds in relation to the USDT transactions. “The investigation had shown Rs 10 crore was sent to a Pakistani Binance USDT account, which has received more than Rs 25 crore from Indian accounts and this gang was one of the key senders,” he said.
In recent months, residents and interested parties have pressured the government to disclose its plans for regulating digital assets. What has changed in that time is the number of illegal activities taking place there and it’s innocent members of the public who are suffering. To stop money laundering in crypto and the illicit activities, India would have to act fast to put a regulation in place that will protect the investors in the crypto market and provide them with a safe environment for participating on it.
