Indian National Sentenced for $20 Million Cryptocurrency Scam Involving Fake Coinbase Website

Chirag Tomar Sentenced to Prison for Cryptocurrency Fraud with Fake Coinbase Website

Using a counterfeit website that imitated the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, an Indian national stole over $20 million from hundreds of victims and was sentenced to prison, according to the US Department of Justice. Jason Byrnes, Special Agent in Charge of the US Secret Service, Charlotte Field Office, and Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, announced Thursday that U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell had sentenced 31-year-old Chirag Tomar to 60 months in prison and two years of supervised release.

According to reports, Tomar used the victims’ money to support an extravagant lifestyle, which included purchasing pricey vehicles like Lamborghinis and Porsches as well as luxury goods like Audemars Piguet watches. Additionally, he utilized the funds to pay for vacations to places like Thailand and Dubai. He entered a guilty plea to wire fraud conspiracy on May 20, 2024. According to the DOJ, Tomar is still in federal custody and will be sent to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility after it is designated.

Indian National Used Fake Coinbase Pro Site to Steal Millions in Digital Assets

According to court filings and Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Tomar and his associates began stealing millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies from victims worldwide, including the US, beginning at least in June 2021 using a spoofing operation. In order to obtain victims’ legitimate Coinbase accounts, they created a fake website that mimicked Coinbase Pro and tricked users into entering their login credentials and two-factor authentication codes using a similar URL.

Moreover, they posed as Coinbase customer service representatives and tricked other users into granting them remote desktop access to their computers or giving out their login credentials over the phone, thus enabling the theft of their cryptocurrency. The stolen funds were converted into other cryptocurrencies and eventually cashed out after being moved between multiple addresses.

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