TechFlow news, on October 18, a U.S. court sentenced 31-year-old Indian national Chirag Thakral to five years in prison, followed by two years of supervised release after completion of his sentence. Thakral stole over $20 million by spoofing the Coinbase cryptocurrency trading website. He used the victims' funds to finance a lavish lifestyle and was arrested at the end of 2023. Thakral has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and will serve his sentence in federal prison.
According to court documents and Thursday's sentencing hearing, beginning at least as early as June 2021, Thakral and his accomplices engaged in a scam scheme that defrauded victims worldwide—including in the United States—of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. They created a fake website mimicking Coinbase Pro with a similar URL to trick users into entering their login credentials and two-factor authentication codes, thereby gaining access to victims’ legitimate Coinbase accounts. Alternatively, they impersonated Coinbase customer service representatives, deceiving other users into revealing authentication details over the phone or enabling remote desktop access to their computers, facilitating the theft of their cryptocurrency. Once the scammers gained access to victims’ accounts, they transferred the cryptocurrency to wallets under their control. The stolen funds were then routed through multiple addresses, converted into other forms of cryptocurrency, and ultimately cashed out.
