Brooklyn man sentenced to up to 12 years in prison for $16 million Coinbase scam
Ronald Spektor, 23, was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing roughly $16 million from approximately 100 Coinbase users by impersonating customer support staff.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun sentenced 23-year-old Ronald Spektor to four to 12 years in prison for orchestrating a social engineering scam that drained roughly $16 million from about 100 Coinbase users across the United States. Spektor pleaded guilty on Sept. 2 to all counts in a 31-count indictment, including first-degree grand larceny and first-degree money laundering. The sentence honored a plea agreement that the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office opposed, as prosecutors had sought a prison term of seven to 21 years.[1][3][4][5]
Prosecutors said Spektor contacted victims while posing as a Coinbase representative, falsely alerting them to security threats against their accounts and directing them to move funds to newly created wallets that he secretly controlled. The scheme caused about $15.9 million in losses, with individual victims losing up to $1 million or more. In one case, a Pennsylvania resident lost approximately $53,150 after receiving spoofed two-factor authentication messages and a phone call from an impersonator claiming to work for Coinbase security.[1][4]
The stolen cryptocurrency was laundered using token swaps, mixing services, gambling platforms, and online storefront purchases. Investigators linked Spektor's home IP address to multiple compromised wallets and discovered a Telegram channel where he posted under the handle @lolimfeelingevil, bragging about his thefts and writing that he had lost $6 million to gambling. The court ordered Spektor to pay nearly $16 million in restitution and forfeit more than $500,000 in cash, cryptocurrency, and personal property.[1][2][4]
Key facts
- Ronald Spektor, 23, was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to 31 counts, including first-degree grand larceny and first-degree money laundering.
- The scheme defrauded approximately 100 Coinbase users across the United States, causing roughly $15.9 million in total losses.
- Spektor posed as Coinbase customer support to convince victims their accounts were hacked, leading them to transfer cryptocurrency into wallets he controlled.
- The court ordered Spektor to pay nearly $16 million in restitution and forfeit more than $500,000 in cash, cryptocurrency, and personal property.
- Prosecutors had requested a sentence of seven to 21 years and opposed the promised sentence granted by Justice Danny Chun.
- Spektor laundered proceeds through mixers, swaps, and gambling sites, and claimed in Telegram messages to have lost $6 million of the proceeds to gambling.
Sources · 5 sources
- UN
UnchainedArticle ·
Coinbase Impersonator Who Drained Nearly $16 Million From Users Heads to Prison A Brooklyn judge on Wednesday sentenced a local man who posed as Coinbase staff and drained nearly $16 million from about 100 of the exchange’s users to four to 12 years in prison, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office announced . Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun imposed the term on Ronald Spektor , 23, of Sheepshead Bay. Spektor pleaded guilty on Sept. 2 to all counts of a 31-count indictment , including first-degree money laundering and first-degree grand larceny. The plea came with a promised sentence that the DA’s office opposed; prosecutors had sought seven to 21 years . Spektor was also ordered to pay almost $16 million in restitution and to forfeit cash, crypto and personal property estimated to be worth more than $500,000. “Today’s sentencing holds the defendant accountable for a brazen, long-running social engineering scam that amounted to a digital robbery of nearly 100 victims,” District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement . How the Scheme Worked Posing as a Coinbase representative, Spektor warned users that a hacker was threatening their holdings and talked them into moving their crypto to a fresh wallet they thought only they controlled, prosecutors said. He had access and emptied it. Losses came to roughly $15.9 million , the office’s Virtual Currency Unit found after a yearlong investigation. Some victims lost $1 million or more. The stolen crypto was swapped across exchanges and routed to mixers, gambling sites and online storefronts, according to the office, and investigators tied Spektor’s home IP address to several drained wallets. On Telegram, under the handle @lolimfeelingevil , Spektor ran a channel called “Blockchain enemies” where he boasted about the thefts, prosecutors said. Messages recovered by investigators show he wrote that he had lost $6 million in crypto to gambling. Coinbase’s Role in the Case When Spektor was charged in December 2025, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said in the DA’s announcement of the charges that the exchange had assisted by “helping identify the perpetrator and the customers he defrauded,” and helping trace stolen funds. In a separate incident in May 2025, Coinbase revealed that criminals had bribed overseas support contractors to steal customer data as part of a $20 million extortion attempt. The DA’s office said Coinbase and most other companies never phone customers or ask them to move crypto into a so-called safe wallet. Related Listen: Inside the Coldcard Hack That Drained Over $100 Million in Bitcoin: Uneasy Money The post Coinbase Impersonator Who Drained Nearly $16 Million From Users Heads to Prison appeared first on Unchained .
Open source - DE
DecryptArticle ·
Brooklyn Man Who Bragged About $16M Coinbase Scam Gets Up to 12 Years He posed as support staff, emptied about 100 accounts, then lost $6 million of the proceeds gambling, according to his own messages.
Open source - TB
The BlockArticle ·
Brooklyn man gets up to 12 years over $16 million Coinbase social engineering scheme A court sentenced 23-year-old Ronald Spektor to four to 12 years in prison for a $15.9 million Coinbase phishing scheme.
Open source - CR
CryptoSlateArticle ·
Man sentenced to 12 years for $16M Coinbase customer support scam A Brooklyn man was sentenced to as much as 12 years in prison for stealing nearly $16 million from Coinbase users. On Sept. 23, Ronald Spektor, 23, received a four-to-12-year sentence after pleading guilty to a 31-count indictment stemming from a fake customer-support operation that targeted about 100 people across the US, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors said Spektor posed as a Coinbase representative and warned users that hackers were threatening their accounts. Victims were then instructed to move their crypto to wallets presented as secure but secretly accessible to Spektor. The scheme generated about $15.944 million in losses, with some victims losing more than $1 million. Spektor pleaded guilty Sept. 2 to charges including first-degree money laundering, grand larceny, and criminal possession of stolen property. Related Reading ZachXBT reveals Coinbase users lost another $45M in a week to ongoing social engineering scams The scam relied on victims executing the transfers themselves after being convinced their assets were in immediate danger. In one case detailed by prosecutors, a Pennsylvania man received spoofed two-factor authentication messages before a caller identifying himself as “Fred Wilson” from Coinbase security warned of an attempted crypto transfer. The victim moved his assets and lost about $53,150. Investigators had interviewed more than 70 victims when charges were announced in December 2025. The sentencing release raised the estimated victim count to about 100 nationwide. How Spektor laundered the stolen crypto Spektor’s operation extended beyond the initial deception. Prosecutors said stolen crypto moved through repeated swaps, exchanges and mixing services before reaching cash-out points. Funds were converted into other tokens, sent to gambling platforms and used at online storefronts, including for gift cards and digital assets. Blockchain analysis, transaction records and search warrants eventually tied Spektor to the operation. Prosecutors said his home IP address was linked to several wallets associated with stolen funds. Investigators also found evidence that he recruited other social engineers through online forums and operated a Telegram channel under the handle @lolimfeelingevil, where prosecutors said he boasted about thefts. Messages recovered from his phone showed he discarded one hardware wallet after fraud allegations surfaced online and bought another. Meanwhile, the sentence came in below what prosecutors sought. Spektor pleaded guilty to the full indictment in exchange for a promised sentence of four to 12 years. The district attorney’s office objected and asked Justice Danny Chun to impose seven to 21 years, but the judge upheld the earlier commitment. The court also ordered Spektor to forfeit more than $500,000 in cash, cryptocurrency, and personal property and to pay nearly $16 million in restitution. That leaves the recovery picture unresolved. The forfeiture represents only a fraction of the estimated losses, and prosecutors did not say how much stolen crypto has been recovered or how much victims have received. Coinbase warns customers that its support staff will never ask them to transfer funds to a new wallet, disclose seed phrases or provide passwords and authentication codes. The case leaves exchanges facing the harder problem of stopping impersonation scams that succeed before users ever interact with an official support channel. The post Man sentenced to 12 years for $16M Coinbase customer support scam appeared first on CryptoSlate .
Open source - CO
CoindeskArticle ·
Brooklyn man sent to prison for 12 years for stealing $16M in a Coinbase phishing scheme The fraudster managed to scam about 100 people across the United States, convincing them of transferring funds to him, claiming their accounts had been hacked.
Open source