The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office has dismantled the online backbone of a multinational cryptocurrency scam that drained tens of millions of dollars from Russian-speaking victims across the U.S.
Working with the FBI, investigators executed search warrants across three time zones in a matter of hours and seized or disrupted 241 scam domains and more than 100 cloud servers hosted by Eastern European and American companies. The servers held the scammers’ victim data, site content and operating software, according to a Wednesday statement.
“Our groundbreaking Virtual Currency Unit identified the fraud, tracked the stolen cryptocurrency, broke new ground by uncovering the infrastructure behind the operation, and worked with the FBI to dismantle it,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.
“By disrupting more than 100 servers and hundreds of fraudulent websites, we have struck at the heart of this criminal enterprise and made it far harder for these scammers to victimize others. I commend our investigators and thank the FBI for their partnership in this extraordinary operation.”
The scam worked by luring victims via Russian-language investment ads on Facebook. A Russian-speaking “advisor” then called and walked them through opening an account on a fake crypto platform and buying digital assets.
Weeks or months later, when victims tried to withdraw, they were locked out or hit with bogus “fees” and “taxes.”
Some lost their life savings. Then the scammers came back for more: Posing as recovery services, they contacted victims weeks later and promised to retrieve the stolen money.
The unit had already taken down 400 scam domains, but new ones kept appearing. Hitting the servers behind them cuts off the scammers’ ability to launch new sites quickly or reach past victims.
The three-year investigation has recovered about $300,000 so far, and prosecutors say they are working to claw back more.