A Brooklyn man got four to 12 years for stealing nearly $16 million from Coinbase users.
Ronald Spektor posed as Coinbase support and tricked 100 victims into moving funds.
He must pay nearly $16 million in restitution and forfeit over $500,000 in assets.
A 23-year-old Brooklyn man has been sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for a phishing scheme that stole nearly $16 million from 100 Coinbase users across the U.S.
Posing as Coinbase support
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced on Sept. 23 that Ronald Spektor, of Sheepshead Bay, was sentenced by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun.
Spektor reached out to victims pretending to be a Coinbase representative, warning them that a hacker was going after their accounts.
He then talked them into moving their funds to a new wallet they believed was under their sole control, but which he could actually access.
Once the money arrived, he emptied the wallets and laundered the proceeds through swapping and mixing services, crypto gambling sites and online storefronts.
Victims came from all over the country, and some lost $1 million or more.
Guilty plea and forfeiture
Spektor pleaded guilty on Sept. 2 to all 31 counts in the indictment, including first-degree money laundering and first-degree grand larceny.
Prosecutors had pushed for seven to 21 years, but the court agreed to the lighter sentence over their objection.
He was also ordered to forfeit more than half a million dollars in cash, crypto and personal property, and to pay almost $16 million in restitution.
Investigators tied Spektor’s IP address to several of the wallets that funds were stolen from.
Under the handle @lolimfeelingevil, he ran a Telegram channel called “Blockchain enemies,” where he openly boasted his heists and wrote that he had lost $6 million gambling.
He also recruited others online to work for him as social engineers, and threw out a hardware wallet after fraud allegations surfaced against him.
Gonzalez said in a statement:
“This case should put crypto scammers on notice: we will follow the digital trail wherever it leads and aggressively pursue those responsible.”
“This case should put crypto scammers on notice: we will follow the digital trail wherever it leads and aggressively pursue those responsible.”
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