Coinbase impersonator who stole up to $16M gets 4-12 years in prison

A 23-year-old U.S. man who posed as a Coinbase employee and stole as much as $16 million in cryptocurrency from about 100 users was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

Ronald Spector used a social engineering scam rather than a hack of Coinbase’s systems, telling victims their accounts were at risk of being hacked and urging them to move assets to a safe wallet or hand over wallet seed phrases, which he then used to steal the cryptocurrency. Spector pleaded guilty on Sept. 2 to all 31 counts, including money laundering and grand larceny. The court also ordered the forfeiture of more than $500,000 in cash and cryptocurrency and restitution for victims.