Two Indian nationals, Ramesh Reddy and his friend Prabakaran are now in police custody. The duo was arrested for overreacting, to the extent of threatening and extortion, because of a failed Bitcoin deal. A local news outlet, New Indian Express, reported the incident on Thursday.
Fake Bitcoin deals
As the local police narrated in the report, Ramesh, who is a distributor of Ayurvedic medicines in Bengaluru, was contacted by an alleged fraudster, who only introduced himself as Naresh. He claimed to be in possession of Bitcoins worth about $4.4 million (Rs 33 crore). However, he told Ramesh that those funds are in the United States, and will give him a commission if he could help him (Naresh) move down the funds to India.
Adyar DCP V Vikraman precisely noted that “he [Naresh] promised 50 percent of that money to Ramesh, only if he found a person who could convert the online currency into Indian Rupees.” At that point, Ramesh reached out to his real estate friend, Prabakaran, on how to execute the Bitcoin deal. They later contacted and persuaded a Chennai-based techie, Mohan, to help them withdraw the funds to Indian.
Ramesh and his friend promised Mohan a one percent commission (i.e., Rs 33 lakh or $44,656) to open an e-wallet through which Bitcoins will be transferred. The money couldn’t be transferred to Indian directly because since it was in the United States, so Mohan had to create an account in the UK to moved to withdraw the money from there. However, the whole effort to execute the Bitcoin deal went sour as the money suddenly vanished, without reaching the UK nor reverting.
A sad ending
Mohan then realized that the e-wallet accounts, ‘Swift Global Pay’ and ‘Insta Merchant Pay,’ were fraudulent. Naresh, who made this entire proposal, was a fraud.
the DCP added.
Both Ramesh and Prabakaran didn’t believe the outcome of the Bitcoin deal, so they began threatening Mohan, who had to repay them the missing money from the money he borrowed using his wife’s jewels. Even at that, the duo continued threatening Mohan, who later reported them to the police, leading to the arrest of Ramesh and his friend.
