Indian Bitcoin Scammers Allegedly Beat their Partner to Death Over $62.7M Scam

Authorities in Dehradun, the interim capital of the Indian State of Uttarakhand revealed on Friday that they uncovered a Bitcoin-related scheme that led to the death of its chief leader, Abdul Shakoor within the week.

Abdul Shakoor according to a report by local news agency, Times of India, was the mastermind of a scheme that collected Rs 450 crore (appr. $62.7 million) from residents of Manjeri, Pandikkad and Malappuram all cities in Kerala, India.

Shakoor, with the help of a team of at least nine persons, promised investors that they would receive massive returns on the money. However, they failed to deliver the promise leading to chaos between both investors and Shakoor’s team.

Following the failed business, Shakoor and his core team members resorted to switching locations as a way of hiding from investors.

The matter then got even worse after the leader told his team a supposed “fake story” that he was hacked, and as a result, lost details to access his Bitcoin wallet. He also suggested he was going to launch his cryptocurrency as a way to pay back investors and the team.

Not believing the “fake story,” some members of the team including Shakoor’s closest ally Aashiq set out to uncover the allegedly lost login details under the belief that “Shakoor still had hundreds of crores in his Bitcoin account.”

Sadly, the team was unable to get access to the leader’s account, neither were they able to get him to disclose the details.

They thus, resorted to beating and “torturing him, which led to his death,” according to a police official. The men dropped the victim’s half-dead body on the street while he died under the care of caregivers in a local private hospital.

Meanwhile, the authorities also brought under their custody five men that allegedly masterminded Shakoor’s beating and torture namely; Faris Mamnoon, Arvind C, Asif Ali, Sufail Mukhtar, and Aftab.

They are also on the hunt for Aashiq, Arshad, Yasin, Rehaab, and Muneef, the other suspects who worked with Shakoor to execute the fraudulent Bitcoin scheme.

In a similar crypto-related crime development, Coinfomania reported recently that 19-year-old British hacker Elliot Gunton bagged a 20-month jail term for offenses that included stealing cryptocurrencies owned by his victims.