Prosecutors in Brooklyn said on Friday that a 23-year-old resident, Ronald Spektor, was charged with stealing $16 million in cryptocurrency from approximately 100 Coinbase users. The individual, who went by “lolimfeelingevil” online, was allegedly behind a phishing and social engineering scheme. Pretending to be a Coinbase representative, Spektor would convince users to send cryptocurrency to accounts he controlled, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said that Spektor motivated victims by claiming that their digital assets were at risk of being stolen by a hacker. He would then allegedly try to launder the digital assets using cryptocurrency mixers, swapping services, and crypto gambling websites. Spektor was arraigned on 31 charges on Friday, including first-degree grand larceny, first-degree money laundering, and participating in a scheme to defraud.
The Brooklyn District Attorney Office’s investigation, which has taken place over the past year, resulted in the seizure of around $105,000 in cash and roughly $400,000 in digital assets. Authorities are in the process of trying to secure more of the stolen assets, they said. Prosecutors said that Spektor “openly bragged about his heists” within a channel on messaging platform Telegram called “Blockchain enemies.” In recovered messages, Spektor allegedly said that he lost $6 million in cryptocurrency through gambling.
