Brooklyn man sentenced to up to 12 years for nearly $16M Coinbase user phishing scheme

Ronald Spektor, a Brooklyn man, was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for stealing nearly $16 million from about 100 Coinbase users in a social engineering and phishing scheme ^{[1] [2]}.

Reporting said Spektor posed as a Coinbase representative and used false hacker warnings to direct victims into cryptocurrency wallets he controlled ^{[1] [3]}.

According to one report, Spektor emptied about 100 accounts, then lost $6 million of the proceeds gambling, based on his own messages ^[4].

One source reported that investigators traced stolen funds through exchanges and gambling services, and that the court ordered forfeiture and nearly $16 million in restitution ^[3].

Another report described the case as illustrating crypto security vulnerabilities and the challenges of recovering stolen assets even after legal victories ^[5].