Court filings in New York have named a suspect in the data breach that exposed thousands of Coinbase customers and allege that employees at outsourcing firm TaskUs took bribes worth more than half a million dollars to leak sensitive information.
The amended class-action complaint, filed Tuesday in the Southern District of New York, expands on earlier disclosures about how criminals infiltrated Coinbase’s support operations in India.
Plaintiffs accuse TaskUs of systemic failures and concealment, saying insiders funneled user data to hackers from late 2024 until the breach was uncovered in Jan. 2025.
TaskUs Staff Allegedly Paid $200 a Photo to Leak Coinbase Data
According to the filing, TaskUs employees were paid $200 per picture to photograph customer information displayed on their computer screens. The complaint estimates that the bribes generated at least $500,000, a sum equivalent to the annual salaries of more than 100 employees in India.
Investigators identified one worker, Ashita Mishra, as joining the conspiracy as early as Sept. 2024. The filing says she stored personal data from more than 10,000 Coinbase customers on her phone and at times took up to 200 photos a day.
The documents describe a “hub-and-spoke” conspiracy in which Mishra and an accomplice directed smaller groups of TaskUs employees to collect and pass along Coinbase user records.
The filing claims that many participants were unaware of others’ involvement, allowing the operation to continue even if one individual was exposed.
Complaint Says TaskUs Tried to Silence Insiders Over Data Leak
TaskUs dismissed around 300 staff in January after discovering the scope of the breach. Plaintiffs allege the company attempted to silence insiders who raised concerns and even fired human resources personnel who began investigating.
Reuters previously reported that TaskUs staff used personal phones to capture screenshots of Coinbase accounts, exposing names, addresses, transaction logs and bank details. The new complaint characterizes the scheme as “a far broader and coordinated criminal campaign” than TaskUs has admitted publicly.
The plaintiffs also accuse TaskUs of delaying disclosure. They argue that Coinbase knew about the leak in January. However, the company only went public in May. By then, criminals had already stolen between $180m and $400m in customer assets.
Exchange Cut Ties With Overseas Agents Following Data Leak
Coinbase said it notified regulators and users as soon as it became aware of the breach and reimbursed affected customers.
In response, the company said it terminated the TaskUs personnel involved, cut ties with other overseas agents and implemented tighter controls. It has not publicly named the other foreign agents implicated.
The case exposes the risks of outsourcing critical customer functions in the crypto industry, where exchanges handle sensitive personal data alongside financial assets.
Analysts say the allegations, if proven, could reshape how exchanges manage offshore operations.
For TaskUs, the claims could prove damaging to its reputation as a trusted business process outsourcing provider.
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