Veer Chetal, one of three men who stole $245 million in Bitcoin last year, just pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges. He agreed to testify against his co-conspirators as part of the deal.
Chetal now faces 19 to 24 years in prison, and his parents may be deported from the US. Although he ran a competent scam, his subsequent actions repeatedly damaged his fortunes.
Bitcoin Thief Who Once Said “I Win It All”
The crypto community has seen a lot of scams over the last few years, but some truly bizarre incidents are coming into the spotlight.
Last year, Veer Chetal, a teenager from Connecticut, stole $245 million in Bitcoin with the help of two accomplices. Shortly after, kidnappers abducted his parents in an attempt to steal these ill-gotten gains.
Now that Chetal has pleaded guilty to the Bitcoin theft, several relevant court documents have been unsealed. This is making more of the full picture come to light.
It seems that the six kidnappers had nothing to do with the initial theft, either as accomplices or perpetrators. The kidnappers assaulted Chetal’s parents, but the extortion proved unsuccessful.
ZachXBT, the prominent crypto sleuth, initially spearheaded the investigation of Chetal’s Bitcoin theft. He referred to the theft as a “highly sophisticated social engineering attack.”
However, he also noted that poor operational security allowed him to find the culprits’ identities. Now that Chetal is practically guaranteed to see prison time, the sleuth indulged in a little gloating:
According to the unsealed documents, Chetal participated in around 50 similar crimes before his big Bitcoin theft, which netted him around $3 million.
His current plea deal will likely include over a decade in prison after he tried to participate in another scam while out on bail. Chetal’s Indian-born parents also face deportation from the US, as his father lost his job following the kidnapping.
All that is to say, there may be a lot of social engineering scams in crypto right now, but many of their perpetrators are objectively incompetent.
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