In what may be one of the biggest cyber frauds reported in Karnataka, a Bengaluru-based cryptocurrency exchange firm has reported that its wallets were hacked into and cryptocurrency worth ₹378.9 crore was stolen. Police have arrested an employee of the firm on suspicion that he was involved in the fraud.
Ballandur-based Neblio Technologies Pvt. Ltd. was hit by a hack on July 19. At 2.45 a.m., fraudsters hacked into the company’s cryptocurrency wallet and transferred 1 USDT (Tether) to an anonymous wallet. Hours later, at 9.40 a.m., the hacker again transferred cryptocurrency worth $44 million (₹378.9 crore) to an unknown wallet and from there transferred it to several other wallets. The company has listed the addresses of these wallets in their complaint to the city police.
The complaint further said that following this, an internal cybersecurity audit was carried out, and they found that the laptop of one of the employees, Rahul Agarwal, was hacked. He was questioned, and he reportedly confessed to having taken up a part-time IT job and earned ₹15 lakh over the past year, and that he has been using the company’s laptop for the part-time job, in violation of norms laid down by the company.
The complainant has raised suspicion that the said employee may have colluded with cyber fraudsters and been part of the hack and swindling of cryptocurrencies from the firm’s wallets. Based on this, a case has been registered against the employee. Police have not ruled out that cyber fraudsters lured the employee with a lucrative part-time job, forcing him to work on his office laptop and misusing that to hack into the company’s servers, without the knowledge of the employee as well. Further investigation is under way.
Meanwhile, Whitefield Cybercrime police said that there was no way to freeze cryptocurrencies in a virtual wallet and they could attempt recovering the money only when it is converted into real currency.
Published – July 30, 2025 10:28 pm IST