- The US Justice Department alleged Rikesh Thapa of looting more than $1 million from the “Victim Company”.
- He was arrested and is expected to be presented before US Magistrate Judge Mitchell D. Dembin.
- Though the company transferred him the amount in the belief that he would hold it safe, he utilized the amount for his personal expenses.
The US Justice Department arrested Rikesh Thapa, the former Chief Technology Officer of Blockparty, the NFT marketplace and storefront platform, for looting over “$1 million worth of United States currency, cryptocurrency, and utility tokens” from a start-up firm.
Earlier on the day, Thapa was arrested in the Southern District of California. As part of the further procedures, the defendant is supposed to appear before US Magistrate Judge Mitchell D. Dembin. The same afternoon, the case will be proceeded by US District Judge John P. Cronan.
On December 7, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, and the Assistant Director in charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced Thapa’s fraud on a start-up technology company. The company’s name was not revealed but was addressed as the “Victim Company”.
Damian Williams appreciated the team behind identifying the theft of Thapa while discussing Thapa’s betrayal of “his company’s trust”:
Rikesh Thapa allegedly betrayed his company’s trust, as he was responsible for the safeguarding of substantial amounts of money. Thapa went to great lengths to cover up his frauds, but, thanks to the dedicated work of this Office and our law enforcement partners, he will now have to answer for his crimes.
Notably, Rikesh Thapa co-founded the company in 2017 and left the company after two years when he was asked to refund the amount that he had illegally amassed from the company fund.
It had been identified that he had agreed to hold $1 million of the company’s money while the other financial institutions were reluctant to have relationships with the company. Later, he started utilizing the amount for his personal expenses like nightclub, clothing, and travel while assuring the company that the money was safe with him.
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