LUCKNOW, June 22 -- In a breakthrough against digital financial fraud, Lucknow Police on Saturday busted a gang involved in siphoning off nearly around Rs 80 lakh through illegal 'crypto trading' of USDT (Tether), arresting eight accused from different parts of the city.A case has been lodged under FIR at Cyber Crime Police Station under sections 317(2), 318(4), 61(2), 111(2) (B) of the BNS and sections 66C and 66D of the IT Act, stated in a cyber crime press release on Saturday. Acting on intelligence inputs and digital surveillance, a joint team led by Inspector Brijesh Kumar Yadav of Cyber Crime Police Station carried out the arrests under the supervision of senior officers including the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), Additional DCP (Crime), and Assistant Commissioners from Gossaiganj and Crime Branch, press release stated.Police said the accused operated a well-organized racket involving foreign handlers, mule bank accounts, and untraceable crypto wallets. In the past two months, Rs 75-80 lakh was funneled through fake 'crypto trading' deals without using any legitimate exchange. Transactions were conducted via Telegram channels controlled by Chinese handlers, who used the TRC-20 network to bypass legal scrutiny. The gang's modus operandi involved recruiting local Indian account holders on a commission basis. These individuals were made to receive high-value deposits via NEFT, RTGS, or IMPS, which were then withdrawn in cash the same day and handed over to underground crypto brokers. These brokers purchased USDT using decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) wallets that operate without KYC norms ensuring complete anonymity and making law enforcement tracking nearly impossible, stated in the press release. During the police interrogation, the accused claimed to be 'crypto traders' but failed to produce any exchange records, GST documents, or wallet KYC details. Investigators confirmed that these wallets, often used for money laundering, were chosen precisely because they operate outside Indian jurisdiction and cannot be traced easily. The arrested individuals have been identified as Satyam Tiwari (21, Lucknow), Diwakar Vikram Singh (21, Basti), Saksham Tiwari (21, Raebareli), Vinod Kumar (24, Gonda), Krish Shukla (25, Lucknow), Mohd. Shad (31, Barabanki), Laiq Ahmed (32, Gonda, currently in Lucknow), and Manish Jaiswal (40, Lucknow), stated in a cyber crime press release on Saturday. From the accused, police recovered 16 mobile phones, 2 laptops, a tablet, Rs 1.85 lakh in cash, 3 cheque books, a passbook, and 4 four-wheelers. The Cyber Crime Cell is now tracing other linked accounts and crypto wallet addresses, with further arrests expected in the coming days, the press release stated. A senior police official stated that the gang exploited loopholes in crypto regulation and bank account verification to run a cross-border financial crime operation masked as 'trading'. Investigations are underway to identify more links in the chain, especially handlers operating from abroad....