Cyber cell arrests security officer of cryptocurrency firm

New Delhi: The Delhi Police cyber cell has arrested a senior security official of a cryptocurrency firm after finding out that he had extracted a product called Bitcoin gold from the firm’s server and later sold it. Though the firm claimed that no money was lost due to the transactions, the value of the Bitcoin amounted to almost Rs 19 crore.

DCP (Cyber Cell) Anwesh Roy said that the accused, Amitabh Saxena, had been asked to join the probe after it was found that only he had access to the secure server of the company. In its complaint, the firm had claimed that it lost 438 Bitcoin from its wallets.

The police said that apart from tracing the lost Bitcoin through blockchains which gives a trail about where the currency is being transferred cops also went through the communications the company had with its clients after receiving complaints from them.

One of the complainants said he had been investing with the company for the past 18 months. A day before the theft was reported to the clients, the company’s website had become inoperative.

Saxena has admitted to having logged into the server. Police are probing whether he had transferred the currency to someone and was paid for it.