# Brooklyn Man Sentenced to Up to 12 Years for Stealing $15.9 Million From Coinbase Users

By Riza Dagoc

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/regulation/23594
Published: 2026-09-24T06:44:50.000Z
Updated: 2026-09-24T06:44:50.000Z

Ronald Spektor was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing approximately $15.944 million in cryptocurrency from about 100 U.S.-based Coinbase users through phishing and social engineering.

The 23-year-old Brooklyn man received the sentence Sept. 23 from Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun. Spektor pleaded guilty Sept. 2 to all 31 counts in the case, including first-degree money laundering, first-degree grand larceny and first-degree criminal possession of stolen property.

Prosecutors said Spektor posed as a Coinbase representative and warned users that hackers threatened their accounts. He then directed them to transfer cryptocurrency to wallets presented as being controlled by Coinbase, but accessible to him.

The scheme ran over the course of a year and affected roughly 100 users. Some victims lost $1 million or more. The stolen assets were moved through multiple crypto exchanges before being sent to gambling services, converted to cash or used to buy gift cards and digital assets.

The case involved impersonation and social engineering rather than a reported breach of Coinbase’s infrastructure. Investigators used transaction records, blockchain analysis, digital forensics and evidence from multiple search warrants. They also linked Spektor’s home IP address to wallets that received stolen cryptocurrency.

The court ordered Spektor to surrender more than $500,000 in assets, including cryptocurrency, cash and personal property, and imposed restitution of nearly $16 million. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of seven to 21 years, but he received the four-to-12-year term over the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office’s objection.

“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,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.

“This case should put crypto scammers on notice: we will follow the digital trail wherever it leads and aggressively pursue those responsible,” Gonzalez said.