Rab arrests ‘bitcoin trader mastermind’

Rab arrested 29-year-old Raihan Hossain, an alleged mastermind behind an illegal bitcoin operation on Tuesday night.

In a special drive, members of Rab-1 arrested Raihan from Gazipur last Tuesday.

Col Tofail Mostofa Sarwar, additional director general (operation) of Rab, disclosed the arrest and spoke about Raihan's activities yesterday, while talking with a group of reporters at the elite force's headquarters in the capital's Uttara.

Rab recovered 19 fake national identity cards, 22 SIM cards, Tk 1,275 and USD 25 in cash, a computer, three mobile phones, three fake invoice books, a trade license, a TIN certificate, a recording microphone, a camera, a router, a headphone, a modem, and four check books of different banks from Raihan's possession.

Sarwar said Raihan has been involved in "online sourcing business" for the last eight years.

Rab officials said he became involved in illegally earning through bitcoin with the help of a Pakistani national named Sayed.

Now, he has around 250 bitcoin accounts.

He used to buy bitcoin after hacking credit cards. So far, Raihan has swindled over 30 thousand US dollars by monitoring local and foreign online bank accounts using different smart devices.

Col Sarwar said that they have found transaction history of USD 35 lakh in Raihan's account in just one month. Meanwhile, about Tk 35 lakh was found in one of his bank accounts, he said.

Raihan, the alleged mastermind behind online bitcoin trading and fraud, has recently bought an Audi worth Tk 1.8 crore, said the Rab high official.

Raihan has been stealing from ordinary people by colluding with Pakistani, Nigerian and Russian smugglers, credit card hackers and illegal smugglers through bitcoins, according to Rab officials.

He would use the banner of a fake company named MRH Software Development to lure people.

Col Sarwar further said that they are working to trace another racket of bitcoin trading, and illegal bitcoins will not be allowed to take root in Bangladesh.