The U.S. government has filed a lawsuit to seize cryptocurrency assets allegedly connected to a fraudulent scheme involving Binance accounts.
On December 12, 2024, the complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York against accounts held under the names Harish Kumar, Raj Kumari, and Rakesh Kumar Athotra. The government seeks to forfeit the digital assets, claiming they are proceeds of wire fraud.
The filing, led by U.S. Attorney Breon Peace and Assistant U.S. Attorney Artemis Lekakis, targets Binance accounts linked to the email addresses lcd.jason@gmail.com, rajkumari957962@gmail.com, and in9313330339_mobileuser@binance.com.
These accounts reportedly hold significant amounts of cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin, Shiba Inu Coin, BitTorrent Token, and Ripple. The lawsuit alleges the assets were obtained through a scheme that defrauded Coinbase users via fake customer service communications.
According to the complaint, victims were deceived by phishing emails claiming issues with their Coinbase accounts. The fraudsters, posing as Coinbase representatives, gained remote access to the victims' computers or extracted sensitive information.
This led to unauthorized transfers of cryptocurrency from the victims' Coinbase accounts into intermediary wallets before being deposited into the defendants' Binance accounts.
One victim, referred to as Victim-1, lost nearly $1.5 million after receiving an email about problems with bank payments linked to his Coinbase account. Following instructions from a fraudster posing as "Calvin" from Coinbase, Victim-1 granted access that allowed the transfer of his digital assets into suspect accounts.
Similarly, Victim-2 was tricked into granting remote access during a fund transfer between Coinbase and Binance accounts, enabling the fraudster to steal his assets.
The complaint outlines similar experiences for Victims 3 and 4 in April and May 2021, who also experienced unauthorized withdrawals after interacting with fraudsters posing as Coinbase customer service representatives.
The fraudulent transactions involved multi-stage transfers across various intermediary wallets before consolidating in the identified Binance accounts.
The U.S. government is pursuing forfeiture under Title 18 U.S.C. Section 981(a)(1)(C), arguing that the virtual currencies represent proceeds from wire fraud, as outlined under Title 18 U.S.C. Section 1343. Authorities have coordinated with Indian law enforcement in ongoing investigations related to these activities.
The case is being handled by U.S. Attorney Breon Peace and Assistant U.S. Attorney Artemis Lekakis. The case is under Case ID: 24-CV-8514.