A Gen-Zer still living with his dad was busted for stealing $16 million in cryptocurrency from dozens of people — using the funds to gamble and shamelessly bragging about the jaw-dropping digital heist online, Brooklyn prosecutors said Friday.
Ronald Spektor, 23, allegedly scammed roughly 100 victims — ranging from cops to single moms — out of their hard-earned savings while running the scheme from his father’s house in Sheepshead Bay, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
“This was no different than someone robbing them, quite literally robbing them for everything they had. It’s heartbreaking,” Gonzalez said at a press conference.
The blockchain bandit contacted victims all over the country while posing as a representative from the crypto exchange company Coinbase, and claimed their money was at risk from a hacker, the DA’s office said.
The young con artist then convinced his marks — including victims in Virginia, California and Pennsylvania— to move the digital dough to a different online “wallet” that he secretly had access to, prosecutors said.
Spektor then allegedly cleaned out those wallets, laundered the money and spent millions of dollars gambling — before boasting about it online under the eerily apt handle @lolimfeelingevil, according to prosecutors.
“He allegedly tricked many unsuspecting people to transfer their life savings to wallets he controlled, blew their hard-earned money gambling online, and then bragged about his successful thefts,” Gonzalez said in the press release.
Spektor also ran a channel on the messaging app Telegram dubbed “Blockchain enemies,” where he allegedly bragged about his scams and admitted to losing $6 million of cryptocurrency cash while gambling, according to prosecutors.
The accused crypto crook was arrested Dec. 3 and pleaded not guilty to grand larceny and first-degree money laundering.
At a hearing on Friday, prosecutors asked the judge to increase Spektor’s bail conditions from $500,000 cash or $1 million bond — after learning he was allegedly plotting an “escape” to Mexico, Canada or the nation of Georgia.
“He took concrete steps to execute that, including sending $600,000 of crypto to an individual in Georgia, the country,” Assistant District Attorney Alona Katz said at the hearing.
Prosecutors said they learned about Spektor’s alleged plan to flee when they recovered a new cellphone belonging to him through a search warrant and found texts about it.
He had spent months “crisscrossing” the US in Greyhound buses before returning to his home and being arrested, prosecutors said.
Spektor’s father, who was not named in court, is also an “active suspect” in the investigation due to “unexplained wealth” that could be connected to the crypto scam, according to prosecutors.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun agreed to increase Spektor’s bond to $2.5 million.
Spektor is due back in court Jan. 6, 2026.
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