A 23-year-old man who impersonated Coinbase customer service to steal nearly $16 million in phishing pleads guilty and was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison

PANews reported on September 24 that according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, 23-year-old Brooklyn man Ronald Spektor was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison for committing phishing and social engineering fraud. For about a year, Spektor pretended to be Coinbase customer service and tricked about 100 U.S. users into transferring cryptocurrency to wallets controlled by it on the pretext that "accounts were hacked and assets were at risk," and a total of nearly $15.94 million was stolen. He then laundered the money through multiple exchanges, currency mixing services and crypto gambling platforms. He pleaded guilty to all 31 charges on September 2, including first-degree money laundering and first-degree grand larceny, and was ordered to forfeit cash, cryptocurrency and personal property worth more than $500,000, and to pay nearly $16 million in compensation. Investigations revealed that he had openly flaunted the proceeds of his crime on platforms such as Telegram.