An Indian national faces US charges this week accusing him of creating a fake version of Coinbase's website, tricking people into stealing their real login credentials and stealing more than $9.5 million in cryptocurrencies from hundreds of victims. pled guilty.
Chirag Tomar, 30, was arrested at the Atlanta airport on December 20, 2023, while visiting family on a travel visa. He was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Both men face up to 20 years in prison.
Tomar's case was first brought by Courtwatch's Seamus Hughes.
Tomer and his co-conspirators created a fake version of the Coinbase Pro website in order to trick Coinbase customers into forking their login information, according to court documents filed in the Western District of North Carolina. At least 542 victims were defrauded of their cryptocurrencies from at least June 2021 until Tomar's arrest in late 2023.
According to court documents, the U.S. Secret Service was able to identify Tomar as a member of the criminal organization because he used a real-name email account to communicate with known and unknown co-conspirators in the fraud. He also kept a spreadsheet of his victims and their respective damages, and used “stolen or fraudulently obtained” identification documents to open accounts on Binance, another cryptocurrency exchange. Sent to any other email address used.
From June 2021 to October 2022, Tomer conducted internet searches for “fake Coinbase pages,” “Coinbase scams,” “US scams,” and “how to withdraw money from Coinbase without OTP.”
Tomar applied for a travel visa to the United States using the same email address
Tomar used the proceeds of the fraud to fund a lavish lifestyle, including buying Rolex and Audemars Piguet watches, “high-end luxury cars such as Lamborghinis and Porsches” and traveling to London, Dubai and Thailand. .
Tomar has not yet been sentenced.
