Two Canadian citizens involved in a $140,000 Bitcoin fraud plead guilty in a United States federal court.
As Finance Magnates reported in August, the two Canadian brothers - Jagroop Singh Khatkar and Karanjit Singh Khatkhar - duped a woman by impersonating customer care agents of crypto Exchange HitBTC and siphoned her funds from the platform.
They managed to steal 23 BTC, then worth $140,000 from the 63-year-old victim who refused to unveil her identity.
The US prosecutors charged both with six counts of wire fraud, as well as conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
An agreement struck right?
Both brothers in their early 20s have pled guilty to the charges on Monday in front of US District Judge Michael H. Simon in federal court in Portland. Though the charges carry a maximum of 20 years in prison, under the signed plea agreement, both the brothers are looking at a prison time of two years.
Their sentencing is pending for March 17, and the prosecutors will request for jail time of two years for them.
“[The brothers] did unlawfully, knowingly, and intentionally transfer, possess, and use, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another, knowing that the means of identification belonged to a real person,” the court document stated.
The victim was also present during the guilty plea. According to her statement, she only realized that she was scammed once she noticed that her funds were gone from the exchange and then alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Amid the guilty plea, prosecutors are trying to give the lost funds back to the victim.
Mentioning the perpetrators, she said: “I feel sorry for them. I have a son that’s 27. I hope they can turn their smarts into something more beneficial.”
