Brooklyn Man Sentenced Up to 12 Years for $15.94 Million Crypto Theft

Ronald Spektor, a 23-year-old Brooklyn man, was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing approximately $15.94 million in cryptocurrency from about 100 Coinbase users across the United States.

Spektor pleaded guilty Sept. 2 to all 31 charges, including first-degree money laundering and first-degree grand larceny.

Over roughly a year, Spektor posed as a Coinbase representative and told users their accounts or assets were at risk from hackers. He persuaded them to move their crypto to new wallets that appeared to be under their control but were accessible to him.

The stolen assets were repeatedly swapped through crypto services before being sent to mixing services and cryptocurrency gambling platforms.

Spektor was also ordered to forfeit cash, cryptocurrency and personal property worth more than $500,000 and pay nearly $16 million in restitution. The case highlights how phishing and social engineering can turn urgent account-security warnings into large crypto thefts.