Brooklyn Man Sentenced to Up to 12 Years for Impersonating Coinbase Support and Stealing Nearly $16 Million

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• Ronald Spektor, 23, of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for a cryptocurrency phishing scheme
• Spektor impersonated Coinbase support representatives to convince roughly 100 victims to transfer nearly $16 million in crypto to wallets he controlled
• He was ordered to forfeit assets worth more than $500,000 and pay restitution of close to $16 million to his victims

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office announced that Ronald Spektor, 23, of Sheepshead Bay, was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for orchestrating a cryptocurrency phishing and social-engineering scheme that stole nearly $16 million from roughly 100 victims, according to the office’s announcement. Spektor impersonated Coinbase customer support representatives, falsely telling victims their accounts had been compromised in order to pressure them into moving their cryptocurrency holdings into wallets he controlled.

According to prosecutors, Spektor’s scheme relied on convincing victims that urgent action was required to protect their own funds, a tactic that let him bypass the usual skepticism people apply to unsolicited financial requests by framing the transfer as a security measure rather than a suspicious request. Once victims moved their cryptocurrency, Spektor laundered the proceeds through a mix of cryptocurrency exchanges, online gambling services, and retail purchases, spreading the stolen funds across channels that made tracing and recovery more difficult.

The exact total stolen was $15,944,000, taken from approximately 100 victims based in the United States. As part of his sentence, Spektor was ordered to forfeit more than $500,000 in assets and to pay restitution of nearly $16 million to the people he defrauded, though recovery for victims often falls short of the full restitution figure in cases involving laundered cryptocurrency.

Prosecutors said Spektor operated online under the handle “@lolimfeelingevil” and ran a Telegram channel called “Blockchain enemies,” where he reportedly bragged about his crimes to other users, details that investigators used to help build the case against him. “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,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. He added that his office “will follow the digital trail wherever it leads and aggressively pursue those responsible.”

The case adds to a growing body of prosecutions targeting impersonation-based cryptocurrency fraud, in which scammers pose as legitimate exchange or wallet support staff to manipulate victims into authorizing transfers themselves, rather than hacking accounts directly. Because these schemes exploit trust and urgency rather than technical vulnerabilities, law enforcement officials have repeatedly urged cryptocurrency users to treat any unsolicited message claiming to be from an exchange’s support team with skepticism, regardless of how convincing or urgent it appears.