CourtWatch's Seamus Hughes first reported on Tomar's case. On December 20, 2023, Tomar flew to his family in the United States on a tourist visa, but he was arrested at the Atlanta airport.
According to court documents, Tomar and his co-conspirators created a fake version of the Coinbase Pro website in order to trick Coinbase customers into providing their credentials. From early June 2021 until Tomar's arrest in late 2023, at least 542 people became victims of cryptocurrency theft.
It is clear from court documents that Tomar was identified as a gang member because he used his real email account to interact with known and unknown co-conspirators in the scam. In addition, he kept a detailed spreadsheet his victims and information about the amounts stolen from each of them, and also sent identification documents obtained fraudulently to other email addresses used to open accounts on the Binance cryptocurrency exchange.
Between June 2021 and October 2022, Tomar actively searched the internet for information about fake Coinbase pages, Coinbase scams, scams in the US, and ways to get money from Coinbase without an OTP. Tomar used the same email address to apply for a US tourist visa.
Using the proceeds of the fraud, Tomar lived a luxurious lifestyle, purchasing Rolex and Audemars Piguet watches, as well as luxury cars such as Lamborghinis and Porsches. He also regularly traveled to various places including London, Dubai and Thailand.