Ronald Spektor, a 23-year-old from Brooklyn's Sheepshead Bay neighborhood, has been sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for stealing nearly $16 million from roughly 100 Coinbase users, after pleading guilty to all 31 counts against him. He carried out the scheme by posing as a representative of the exchange and persuading victims to move their funds somewhere he controlled.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced the sentencing in a statement on Wednesday.

SENTENCING: Brooklyn Man Sentenced to up to 12 Years in Prison for Stealing Nearly $16 Million in Fraudulent Cryptocurrency Scheme

— Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez (@BrooklynDA) September 23, 2026

According to the district attorney's office, Spektor contacted Coinbase users claiming to work for the exchange and told them their assets were exposed to a hacker. The New York Times, which covered the case at his arraignment in December, reported that the sequence began with a victim's phone filling up with alerts, followed by an email promising a call from the exchange — sometimes under the name James Wilson. Victims then moved their holdings to what they understood to be a new wallet under their sole control. It was, in fact, accessible to Spektor, who emptied it. The sequence — a flood of alarming notifications followed by an offer of rescue — is the hallmark of support-impersonation fraud, a category of scam in which urgency keeps victims from verifying who is actually on the other end of the line.

Spektor pleaded guilty on September 2 to the entire 31-count indictment, including first-degree money laundering, first-degree grand larceny and first-degree criminal possession of stolen property. Justice Danny Chun imposed the sentence over the objection of prosecutors, who had asked for seven to 21 years. In addition to the prison term, Spektor must forfeit cash, crypto and property valued at more than half a million dollars and pay restitution of almost $16 million.

The losses totaled $15,944,000, with victims spread across the country; some lost $1 million or more. The stolen funds were swapped repeatedly across exchanges before being consolidated at what prosecutors called cash-out points, where they were converted into other tokens, cash and gift cards. Large portions went to gambling services and online storefronts.

Investigators tied the scheme to Spektor using transaction records, blockchain analysis, digital forensics and material seized under several search warrants. His home IP address was linked to multiple wallets that had received stolen crypto. That traceability is a structural feature of public blockchains: transfers are permanently recorded on open ledgers, so funds leave a trail that persists no matter how many times they are swapped — a property that has made on-chain analysis a routine tool for both law enforcement and independent researchers. Independent blockchain investigator ZachXBT had named him in a thread in November 2024, and prosecutors went on to interview 70 victims. Spektor's phone held 12 wallets tied to at least 140 deposits traced back to 90 people, one of them holding about $6.3 million.

He also talked about it. Under the handle @lolimfeelingevil, Spektor ran a Telegram channel called "Blockchain enemies" where he boasted about the thefts, and he used online forums to recruit others to act as social engineers, staging what looked to victims like hacking attempts. Messages recovered by investigators show him writing in slang that he had lost $6 million in crypto gambling, and suggesting he had made millions from scamming.

After allegations about him began circulating online, he got rid of a hardware wallet and bought a replacement, telling his helpers to replace their equipment as well, prosecutors said. He spent months moving around the country by Greyhound bus, discussed leaving for Mexico or Canada and sent $600,000 in crypto to someone in Georgia before returning to Brooklyn, where he was arrested.

Prosecutors seized $105,000 in cash and $400,000 in crypto from Spektor at the time of his arrest, the Times reported. Millions remain unaccounted for, and prosecutors said at his arraignment that Spektor holds the key to reaching them. Recovering the rest — and turning the near-$16 million restitution order into actual repayments for victims — is the thread to follow as the case moves past sentencing.

Gonzalez said his office would "follow the digital trail wherever it leads." His office added that Coinbase and most companies will never call customers or ask them to move crypto to a safe wallet.