New Yorker steals $16 million in crypto funds from Coinbase clients, then loses most in online casino
Last Updated on 31 December 2025 by CryptoTips.eu
On this last day of the year, a quick story about an incredible crypto scam that made headlines across the United States this week. A 23-year-old from Brooklyn, New York, posed as a Coinbase employee to steal approximately $16 million in cryptocurrency from around a hundred investors in the span of a year. The vast majority of the crypto loot was subsequently lost in online casinos.
Greyhound
Ronald Spektor of New York was charged this week with 31 felonies, including aggravated theft, money laundering and fraud. He posed as a Coinbase employee over the phone and tricked people into transferring their crypto savings to wallets he controlled.
In this way, he managed to steal some $16 million in crypto from unsuspecting victims during the whole of 2025. Most of the money was subsequently gambled away in online casinos.
When the loot became too large and too many people filed complaints against him, he attempted to flee via Greyhound buses, plotting an escape from the United States. He had sent “$600,000 in cryptocurrency to a person in Georgia.”
Spektor’s father, who has inexplicably become incredibly wealthy in recent months, has also been charged.
