Delhi man's Rs 4.5 cr crypto fraudulently sent to Palestine's Hamas wing

A Delhi resident's cryptocurrency worth Rs 30 lakh (current value Rs 4.5 crore) was fraudulently transferred to three different foreign accounts of which one belonged to Al-Qassam Brigates, a military wing of the Palestinian organisation, Hamas.

"The complainant had reported that some unknown persons had fraudulently transferred his Bitcoins, Etherum and Bitcoin cash, worth Rs 30,85,845 at the time of incident, from his cryptocurrency wallet," Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO, Special Cell) K.P.S. Malhotra told IANS.

The victim owned cryptocurrencies (6.2 Bitcoin/9.79 Etherum/2.44 Bitcoin Cash) of blockchain mobile wallet.

The DCP said initially the case was registered at Paschim Vihar police station, on the orders of the local Court. Later on, the investigation of the case was transferred to Cyber Crime Unit, Special Cell, Delhi.

During the course of investigation, the cryptocurrency trail led to startling facts, that the cryptocurrencies have ended in the wallets maintained by Al-QassamBrigates, which is a military wing of the Palestinian organisation Hamas and to the wallets which have already been seized by Israel, National Bureau for counter Terror Financing.

"The seized wallet belonged to Mohammad Naseer Ibrahim Abdulla," the official said.

The other wallets in which a major share of cryptocurrencies have been transferred were being operated from Giza, Egypt. One such wallet belonged to Ahmed Marzooq, a resident of Giza Egypt. Another wallet, in which cryptocurrencies were transferred belonged to Ahmed Q.H. Safi , a resident of Ramallah, Palestine.

Malhotra informed that the cryptocurrencies were routed through various private wallets and finally landed at the suspects' wallets, being used and operated in Gaza, Egypt and the military wings of Palestinian organisation Hamas.