Indian Resident’s Binance Wallet Targeted in $11,475 Bitcoin Forfeiture Case

On Wednesday, March 6, 2024, the US government filed a forfeiture complaint in the US District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. The complaint seeks the forfeiture of approximately $11,475 worth of bitcoin in a Binance crypto exchange wallet belonging to Prateek Bhatt of India.

According to documents filed in court, a victim identified as S.M. from Baton Rouge fell prey to an elaborate phone scam in October 2023. S.M. received a suspicious pop-up on his/her iPad claiming the device was compromised. When they called the number provided, the scammers posing as Apple representatives transferred the call to an individual claiming to be from Chase Bank’s fraud department named Walter Donovan. Donovan convinced S.M. that his/her bank account was at risk of fraudulent activity and instructed them to withdraw $24,000 cash from S.M’s account and deposit it into bitcoin ATMs to be transferred to a “secure account.”

S.M. complied with the instructions and the money was converted to bitcoin and sent to several crypto wallets. Through its investigation, the Secret Service was able to trace the funds from one of the receiving wallets to a Binance user account belonging to Bhatt. According to the complaint, all evidence points to the money being derived from the wire fraud committed against S.M.

As part of the civil forfeiture case, the US government is seeking to have the $11,475 in the Binance account turned over to authorities. Investigators believe scammers often funnel stolen cryptocurrency through multiple wallets and exchanges in an attempt to obscure the trail. However, in this case, law enforcement was able to trace the transactions and identify the individual potentially benefiting from the victim’s losses.

Please contact BlockTribune for access to a copy of this filing.