23-Year-Old Finesse Artist Steals $15 Million Pretending to Work at Coinbase
KEY POINTS
- •Ronald Spektor, a 23-year-old Brooklyn man, was charged in December 2023 for stealing $15 million by pretending to be a Coinbase customer service representative.
- •He allegedly convinced about 100 victims across the U.S. to hand over their cryptocurrency seed phrases by claiming their assets were at risk, then stole their funds.
- •After his arrest, investigators found Spektor boasted about the crimes on Discord and tried to conceal his gains by involving family members and using online gambling accounts.
In a dazzling display of digital pickpocketing, 23-year-old Brooklynite Ronald Spektor swindled roughly $15 million by masquerading as a Coinbase customer service rep from April to December 2023. Holding it down in Rikers Island with bail set at a modest $500k cash or $1 million bond, Spektor allegedly tricked around 100 crypto victims nationwide to surrender their precious seed phrases under the pretense of 'asset risk.' The NYPD investigation unveiled his wild bragging on Discord about scamming millions and losing $6 million gambling—because of course he did. His Telegram handle '@LOLIMFEELINGEVIL' apparently doubles as an ironic branding choice. To cap it off, family chats caught him plotting to ditch hardware wallets, and his lawyer insists this mess is just 'speculative' until the full picture emerges—probably after they rerun the trial on Netflix.
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Source: Businessinsider | Published: 12/16/2025 | Author: Laura Italiano