coindesk.com
Two Canadian nationals have been sentenced to two years in a U.S. jail for stealing bitcoin from an Oregon resident through a Twitter scam.
Karanjit Singh Khatkar, and Jagroop Singh Khatkar, from British Columbia, Canada, were sentenced on March 17–24 months in federal prison with three years supervised release for conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering involving bitcoin (BTC).
According to a U.S. Department of Justice Attorney's Office press release Tuesday, in a case that was investigated by the FBI, the two defendants sought to trick victims into thinking they were discussing customer service matters with representatives from Hong Kong-based crypto exchange HitBTC.
In October 2017, the two defendants used a Twitter account with the handle @HitBTCAssist to pose as HitBTC staff to manipulate one victim into handing over 23.2 BTC (worth $118,000 at today's prices) from a HitBTC wallet to Karanjit Khatkar’s wallet on the Kraken exchange.
The Khatkars also convinced the Oregon resident to hand over information that could be used to compromise the victim's accounts including email as well as exchange account details.
Within days of the theft, the Khatkars split the bitcoin proceeds and proceeded to spend the liquidated cryptocurrency on a lavish lifestyle involving luxury cars and casinos.
On December 16, 2019, the Khatkars pleaded guilty to the charges and were ordered to pay $142,349 in prepayment restitution during a change of plea hearing. A further $42,162 was awarded at sentencing, bringing the total figure to $184,511.