Brooklyn Fraudster Gets 12-Year Term in $16M Coinbase Phishing Case

Bitcoin Magazine

Brooklyn Man Sentenced to 12 Years for $16M Coinbase Phishing Scam

An individual operating under the online alias “lolimfeelingevil” has been handed a 12-year prison term after admitting to involvement in a scheme that siphoned $16 million in cryptocurrency from Coinbase clients.

Ronald Spektor, a 23-year-old from Brooklyn, New York, pretended to be an agent of the largest U.S. crypto exchange and warned targets that hackers had compromised their accounts, as stated by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

He then used social engineering tactics to persuade victims to transfer their digital assets into what they thought was a secure new wallet. Such manipulation involves deceiving individuals into sending funds or revealing sensitive details.

Spektor had control over that wallet, drained its contents, and cleaned the proceeds via coin swaps, mixing services, and crypto betting platforms — with some victims losing $1 million or more.

“Our Virtual Currency Unit painstakingly pieced together the digital proof that identified the defendant behind this sophisticated scheme, followed the money that he stole and compiled iron-clad evidence against him,” District Attorney Gonzalez said in a Wednesday statement.

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

Investigators from the DA’s Virtual Currency Unit traced Spektor’s home IP address to several victim wallets. They also discovered he had enlisted accomplices on online forums and boasted about his crimes on a Telegram channel under the handle “@lolimfeelingevil.”

In retrieved communications, he claimed to have wagered away $6 million in crypto. When fraud allegations surfaced online, he disposed of a hardware wallet and acquired a replacement.

Spektor entered a guilty plea on September 2 to all 31 charges, which included first-degree money laundering and grand larceny.

Justice Danny Chun imposed the agreed sentence despite prosecutors pushing for a longer term of seven to 21 years. Spektor is also required to surrender over $500,000 in assets and pay close to $16 million in restitution.

Authorities reminded the public that Coinbase will never phone customers or instruct them to move funds to a “safe wallet.”