New Delhi (Agency): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Sahil Pal, a resident of Mukherjee Nagar in North Delhi, who is accused of posing as a Canadian government official and defrauding people by coercing them into transferring their assets into cryptocurrency wallets. He would then allegedly siphon off these assets with his accomplices, according to officials who spoke on Thursday.
During a search of Pal’s premises on Tuesday, the CBI reportedly found Rs 1 crore in cash. Pal, along with a man named Ashish Bhambani, was booked by the agency on May 11 following information from Canadian authorities.
After his arrest, Pal was presented before a special CBI court, which ordered him to remain in CBI custody until July 29 for further questioning.
According to the officials, the CBI had worked with local intelligence and conducted surveillance based on the received inputs. A search operation was initiated at the premises of both accused individuals.
A CBI spokesperson said, “The CBI conducted searches at different places on the premises of the accused in an ongoing investigation of a case related to Crypto frauds. During searches, a cash of Rs 1 crore (approximately) was recovered from the premises of an accused.”
The agency alleges that the accused individuals were pretending to be government officials in Canada to carry out their fraudulent activities.
In the CBI’s complaint, it is claimed that Pal and Bhambani, who lives in the Rajouri Garden area of West Delhi, posed as Canadian government officials and defrauded Trishan Goussard from Quebec in September of the previous year.
The pair reportedly told Goussard to deposit CAD 7006 (around INR 4.35 lakh at current exchange rates) into a cryptocurrency wallet to avoid several fraud charges linked to his compromised social insurance number.
Goussard, who was not aware of the fraud, deposited the money through a Bitcoin ATM. The wallet was last used on the Binance application through an IP address, which had 103 instances of logs linked to a mobile number registered in Bhambani’s name.
Their method involved providing fake technical support consultation to unsuspecting victims and pressuring them to transfer cryptocurrency funds. “These ill-gotten cryptocurrency assets were subsequently routed through multiple crypto wallets, ultimately ending up in the perpetrators’ crypto accounts,” the spokesperson explained.
