Bengaluru: A special anti-corruption court has rejected the bail petitions of two people in connection with a cryptocurrency theft case.Sunish Hegde, who is imprisoned, applied for regular bail, while Prasidh Shetty, an alleged beneficiary in the case, sought anticipatory bail.ED in the first week of June arrested Srikrishna alias Sriki, Shetty and Robin Khandelwal in connection with the multi-crore cryptocurrency money laundering and hacking case. However, Sriki and Khandelwal did not apply for bail. Shetty applied for anticipatory bail since he was a beneficiary in the case, sources said.According to special public prosecutor Madhu N Rao, ED documents revealed a sophisticated cyber extortion, hacking and money laundering operation targeting major online poker platforms. The probe, conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, names hacker Sriki and his close associate Hegde as central figures who allegedly netted crores from digital extortion games and compromised databases.Arguing before the special court, Rao explained, “The accused persons hacked corporate websites and digital wallets to steal virtual digital assets (VDAs), proprietary data and funds. Stolen VDAs were liquidated and routed through mainstream crypto trading platforms. The syndicate used compromised site data to directly extort money from the victim businesses. Proceeds from the extortion and crypto sales were layered through multiple bank accounts and trading platforms before being spent on luxury lifestyles.”He added that Sriki and associates earned crores of rupees by hacking gaming websites.“An FIR was originally registered on Dec 23, 2020, at the Bengaluru City Cyber Police Station regarding the hacking of the PokerSaint website. Soon, cops arrested prime suspect Srikrishna alias Sriki. In his statement, Sriki confessed to hacking several poker platforms, including PokerSaint. The stolen database was subsequently utilised to fuel their own poker business operations. Srikrishna explicitly stated that his associate, Sunish Hegde, amassed approximately Rs 6 crore purely out of the PokerSaint database breach,” the prosecutor quoted from the charge sheet.Fixing Scam Nets Rs 2 CroreThe syndicate deployed a unique extortion strategy against another major platform, PokerBazzi, and investigators explicitly categorised the operation as an “extortion game.” Statements from Srikrishna and Khandelwal explained that Srikrishna hacked the PokerBazzi website, after which Hegde approached the platform’s owner, Navkiran, under the guise of a helpful intermediary. Hegde claimed he knew the hacker and offered to help “fix” the website’s security vulnerabilities. Believing the pitch, the owner reportedly made a cash payment of Rs 2 crore to the accused, the special public prosecutor said.Furthermore, during a Feb 2019 stay in Goa, Navkiran reportedly promised Rs 50 lakh worth of cash or casino chips to resolve security issues, ultimately handing over Rs 20 lakh in cash and chips, Rao argued, adding that though Shetty has not been arrested, investigations have revealed that he is one of the beneficiaries and his name surfaced in the investigations. He received lakhs of rupees from hacking and made payments to luxury hotels and resorts on behalf of other accused persons.
