Brooklyn prosecutors and the FBI have dismantled the infrastructure of a multinational crypto investment scam that looted tens of millions of dollars from Russian-speaking Americans, seizing 24 fraud websites and 112 servers and recovering roughly $300,000 so far. No arrests have been made.

The takedown was carried out by the Kings County District Attorney's Virtual Currency Unit (VCU) together with the FBI. Per the official announcement from District Attorney Eric Gonzalez's office, issued Wednesday, it ranked among the largest cyber disruptions ever orchestrated by a local district attorney's office, an unusual show of reach for a local prosecutor's office.

Investigators spent hours last week executing search warrants across three different time zones. The seized servers were held by hosting companies in the United States and Eastern Europe, while the criminals had relied on cyber infrastructure and IP addresses in Ukraine and other Eastern European nations, the VCU said — a footprint spanning two continents that required coordination with private hosting firms as well as law enforcement partners.

The unit had already taken down 400 scam domains during its three-year investigation, but new sites kept appearing almost as fast as old ones went offline, a cycle that made domain takedowns alone insufficient. Striking at the server level cut off the data, victim records and software feeding the fraudulent sites, and also prevents the scammers from spinning up new websites or contacting previous victims.

How the scheme worked

According to the DA's office, victims were initially targeted through Russian-language Facebook ads promoting investment opportunities. A Russian-speaking caller posing as an "investment advisor" then instructed each target to open an account on a crypto investment platform. Victims purchased cryptocurrency and sent it to wallet addresses associated with the fake platforms, where balances appeared to grow for weeks or months. When they attempted to withdraw funds, their accounts were locked or they were told to pay additional fees and taxes.

Brooklyn's large Russian-speaking population meant the borough was hit harder than the rest of the country, prosecutors said. Some victims lost their entire life savings, and the office estimates total losses in the tens of millions of dollars.

Data from the seized servers exposed a second layer to the scheme: a few weeks after the initial theft, the same crew contacted victims again, promising to recover their lost crypto for a fee.

"These criminals stole many millions of dollars from Russian-speaking victims through an elaborate investment scheme, then tried to exploit them again with false promises to recover their money," Gonzalez said.
James C. Barnacle, head of the FBI's New York field office, credited the swift work of the Kings County District Attorney's Office. Gonzalez thanked the FBI, Shadow Server, Coeus and UltaHost for their assistance.

In a related Brooklyn case, Cryptopolitan reported that 23-year-old Brooklyn resident Ronald Spektor was sentenced to up to 12 years in prison for impersonating Coinbase support staff and stealing about $16 million from approximately 100 victims.

The FBI has said Americans lost $11.4 billion to crypto-related fraud in 2025, up 22% from the prior year — the national backdrop against which the Brooklyn operation unfolded. The DA's office continues to seek to claw back more than the approximately $300,000 already seized.