prison

According to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, 23-year-old Brooklyn man Ronald Spektor was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison for committing phishing and social engineering fraud. Over approximately one year, Spektor impersonated Coinbase customer service, luring about 100 American users to transfer cryptocurrency to wallets under his control, claiming "accounts were hacked and assets were at risk," stealing nearly 15.94 million dollars in total.Subsequently, he laundered the money through multiple exchanges, mixing services, and cryptocurrency gambling platforms. On September 2, he pleaded guilty to all 31 charges, including first-degree money laundering and first-degree grand larceny, and was ordered to forfeit cash, cryptocurrency, and personal property valued at over 500,000 dollars, while also needing to pay restitution of nearly 16 million dollars. Investigations revealed that he had publicly flaunted his criminal gains on platforms like Telegram.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Iris Rabaya Au, a 37-year-old woman from Irvine, Orange County, California, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for failing to report over $2.6 million in illegal income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). She was also ordered to pay $1.484 million in restitution and had multiple luxury cars, high-performance vehicles, designer handbags, and three "Godfather" sculptures confiscated. Au is the ex-girlfriend of cryptocurrency scammer Adam Iza.Prosecutors stated that between 2020 and 2024, Iza fraudulently obtained Meta advertising accounts and credit lines, selling account access and earning millions of dollars in unreported income. At Iza's direction, Au set up shell companies and opened bank accounts, using the related funds to pay approximately $1 million to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) officers and to purchase or lease luxury homes, cars, jewelry, and clothing. They also spent nearly $10 million on entertainment and purchased about $16 million in cryptocurrency for Iza. Between 2020 and 2023, Au transferred over $2.6 million into her personal bank accounts but did not accurately report it on her federal tax returns. She pleaded guilty to one count of false tax return in March 2025. Iza pleaded guilty in January 2025 to charges including conspiracy to infringe rights, wire fraud, and tax evasion, with a sentencing hearing scheduled for October 5. He was also sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for his involvement in an attempted Bitcoin robbery and kidnapping case in Connecticut in August 2024.

A former bank executive was recently sentenced for forging documents to fraudulently obtain over 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars in illegal loans, and using the funds to purchase Bitcoin and conduct cryptocurrency bribery.

According to the United Morning News, seven Malaysian gangsters targeted players attending a poker game, breaking into a luxury private residence in Bukit Timah late at night, armed and stealing over 4.9 million dollars, quickly splitting into two groups to escape Singapore. Six of them pleaded guilty in the High Court on Monday (September 14), with the two masterminds sentenced to 12 years and 11 months in prison, 24 strokes of the cane, plus a fine of 4,000 dollars.In court, it was revealed that the masterminds, Wu Wentong (30 years old) and Huang Zhishan (35 years old), learned from a friend who had previously attended the poker game that the house often held poker games at night. After scouting the location, they discovered that the front door of the house would not be locked during the game. Wu Wentong and Huang Zhishan then recruited five other accomplices, specifically coming to Singapore to commit the crime. This armed robbery occurred around 2 a.m. on April 18, 2024, at a residence in the upscale Alper Wang Garden area, where 11 men and women were playing poker in the living room.According to the case details, around March 2024, Wu Wentong and Huang Zhishan decided to rob the poker players at the house due to financial issues. They knew that they could not carry out such a large-scale robbery with just the two of them, so they contacted Hamidun, who runs a private security company and provides debt collection services, to help gather a team, promising a reward of 1.5 million ringgit (approximately 470,000 Singapore dollars). After the group succeeded, they left in a multi-purpose vehicle, splitting into two groups to leave Singapore via the Tuas and Woodlands checkpoints. At the same time, several players in the private residence managed to free themselves from their restraints and reported the robbery to the police. With the assistance of the Royal Malaysia Police, the six defendants were arrested between late April and November 2024 and were extradited to Singapore for prosecution. The police have since recovered virtual currency worth 1.69 million dollars, while the remaining funds and property are still missing.

According to The Block, Las Vegas businessman Brent Kovar was convicted by a jury for his involvement in a $24 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme and faces a maximum of 280 years in prison.The U.S. Department of Justice stated that Kovar used investor funds to operate Profit Connect and repaid old investors with new funds under the guise of mining profits.

According to Caixin, the Hong Kong Court of Appeal yesterday rejected the sentence reduction application of the mastermind behind the electric fraud and human trafficking, Ma Zhihao, and upheld the original sentence of 56 months in prison. During the investigation of the case, the Hong Kong police tracked the criminal funds through blockchain and cryptocurrency transaction records, identifying the key points where ransoms and criminal proceeds were received.It is reported that a victim's family paid approximately 9,527 Tether (USDT) to a cryptocurrency wallet designated by the criminals. The blockchain tracking records conclusively prove that 8,127 USDT flowed into an exchange account registered under Ma Zhihao's real name and Hong Kong ID, which was then exchanged for about 63,000 Hong Kong dollars and transferred to his personal HSBC bank account, becoming important evidence of his involvement in the crime and obtaining profits. The Court of Appeal pointed out that if it were not for the 7-year sentencing cap imposed by the District Court, the punishment faced by the defendant would be much heavier than this.

The Hungarian Parliament passed Bill XXXVIII of 2026, which abolishes legal provisions related to cryptocurrency asset conversion services, including the verification requirements that European exchanges must pass to operate legally in Hungary. The bill was voted on and passed on July 31 and came into effect on August 7.This abolition simultaneously cancels two charges related to cryptocurrency assets: unauthorized trading of high-value cryptocurrency assets can result in a maximum of 5 years in prison, and violating verification obligations when providing cryptocurrency exchange services can result in a maximum of 8 years in prison. The relevant provisions were criticized for overlapping with the EU MiCA framework.

On the morning of August 20, 2026, the Intermediate People's Court of Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province publicly announced the first-instance verdict in the case of Evergrande Group Co., Ltd., Evergrande Real Estate Group Co., Ltd., and defendant Xu Jiayin. The court imposed multiple penalties on Evergrande Group, sentencing it to a fine of 8.82 billion yuan; it fined Evergrande Real Estate 7 billion yuan; and sentenced Xu Jiayin to life imprisonment for multiple crimes, depriving him of political rights for life, and confiscating all personal property; it also ordered the continued recovery of illegal gains, with any shortfall to be compensated.The court found that Xu Jiayin is the actual controller of Evergrande Group. Between 2016 and 2021, Evergrande Group, Evergrande Real Estate, and Xu Jiayin inflated assets and concealed liabilities through financial fraud and other means, committing crimes such as illegally absorbing public deposits, fundraising fraud, fraudulent issuance of securities, and illegally disclosing important information; they also obtained control of financial institutions through bribery, illegally siphoning off credit and insurance funds. Xu Jiayin further exploited his position to organize financial fraud, misappropriating company property under the guise of dividends. The court deemed these actions to severely disrupt the market economic order, with particularly huge amounts involved and particularly heinous circumstances, and imposed severe penalties according to the law.On the same day, the two levels of courts in Shenzhen also ruled on the cases of individuals involved in Evergrande related to illegally absorbing public deposits and fundraising fraud, sentencing 56 individuals including Zhen Litiao, Ke Peng, Xu Tenghe, and Xu Zhijian to prison terms ranging from eighteen years to one year and ten months, along with fines or confiscation of property.

A man in Anshun, Guizhou, used the name of a virtual currency airdrop project as a pretext to lure friends into investing with the bait of guaranteed high returns, ultimately crossing the legal red line. The People's Procuratorate of Pingba District, Anshun City, Guizhou Province, filed a public prosecution, and the court sentenced Zhao to seven months in prison for fraud, along with a fine of 5,000 yuan.Zhao had been paying attention to the field of virtual currency investment for many years and had long been posting investment insights and financial management tips on social media platforms. Zhang was also a virtual currency enthusiast, and the two met on a social platform due to their common interests, gradually becoming friends and frequently discussing investment strategies online. Through long-term communication, Zhao gained Zhang's trust with seemingly professional investment analysis. Subsequently, Zhao proposed a joint investment, to which Zhang agreed. However, after a period of investment, Zhang experienced significant losses and expressed his intention to stop further investments.On August 23, 2025, Zhao claimed that a certain app had launched an airdrop project (to promote a new project, encourage user participation, or reward loyal users, distributing native tokens of the project for free to eligible users), persuading Zhang to invest the remaining funds in his account into this project, promising a return of 100 to 200 U coins (virtual currency) within two days. Zhao also guaranteed that if there were any losses during this period, he would bear the responsibility. To further alleviate Zhang's concerns, Zhao claimed that all investment funds would be transferred to a public chain (the public address of the virtual currency). Believing Zhao, Zhang exchanged 1,757 dollars in his account for Ethereum and completed the transfer according to the wallet link provided by Zhao. In reality, the wallet corresponding to that link was a personal account registered using his girlfriend's identity information, not a public chain. The agreed time for the return of funds had passed, but Zhao had not fulfilled his promise. Zhang urged for repayment multiple times, but Zhao evaded responsibility with excuses such as sending the wrong link and needing time to track it down. On September 7 of the same year, Zhang reported the situation to the police after noticing something was wrong.On April 2 of this year, the Pingba District Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against Zhao for suspected fraud. The procuratorial agency believed that Zhao deceived others out of property by concealing the truth, with a significant amount involved, constituting the crime of fraud. Given that Zhao truthfully confessed to the criminal facts after being apprehended, showed signs of remorse, and had fully compensated the victim for their losses while voluntarily admitting guilt, he could be punished leniently according to the law.

According to Digital Asset, a South Korean court has made a first-instance ruling regarding Delio CEO Jeong Sang-ho involved in a cryptocurrency fraud case amounting to approximately 250 billion won (about 180 million USD), sentencing him to 15 years in prison.The 11th Criminal Division of the Southern District Court of Seoul stated that Jeong's criminal conduct was serious, and he continued to shift responsibility to other companies while attempting to evade accountability. This ruling comes about three years and two months after Delio suspended withdrawals in June 2023.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for Connecticut stated that three men from St. Louis, Sedric Louis, John Davis, and Martel Williams, have been charged with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, allegedly planning to break into a residence and force the victims to transfer cryptocurrency related to a theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin. Each faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.Prosecutors allege that the three traveled to Connecticut from August 21 to 24, 2024, rented a car, and prepared items such as air guns and walkie-talkies, monitoring their target and the target's parents for two consecutive days before abandoning the plan due to concerns that residential cameras would record their movements. Subsequently, another group from Florida executed the same plan and six individuals were arrested on August 25 in connection with a carjacking involving a Lamborghini Urus. Louis and Davis have been held since their arrest on June 25 and pleaded not guilty to the charges on July 30 in federal court in Bridgeport; Williams was released on bail after making the same plea on July 17. Prosecutors stated that the kidnapping target was the parent of an individual involved in the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin, and the indictment does not constitute evidence of guilt.

According to The Block, former Los Angeles police officer Eric Halem was sentenced to life in prison plus 15 years for his involvement in a cryptocurrency-related robbery case.

Justin Ryan Schmidt, the founder of the cryptocurrency investment fund Translunar Crypto LP, has been sentenced to 37 months in prison by a U.S. court for tax evasion. The U.S. Department of Justice stated that the 46-year-old Schmidt pleaded guilty this year in federal court in Austin, Texas, where he was accused of underreporting income, declaring less than $5,000 in income from 2020 to 2022, while prosecutors claimed he actually earned over $7 million through fund operations from 2019 to 2022.It is reported that Schmidt founded Translunar in 2017, primarily investing in blockchain startups, with funding mainly coming from investors in the Austin area of Texas and Aspen, Colorado. He was arrested by the IRS Criminal Investigation Division on February 23, 2026, and has been in custody since then.

According to Decrypt, the Myanmar parliament passed a law on Tuesday that allows for the death penalty for those who coerce others into engaging in online fraud through violence or illegal detention.According to the draft bill released in May this year, if such abusive behavior results in the death of the victim, the death penalty should be imposed. The new law also stipulates that individuals operating online fraud parks or implementing "digital currency fraud (cryptocurrency fraud)" can be sentenced to life imprisonment; while criminals who commit violent coercion, illegal detention, and other acts can be sentenced to 10 years to life imprisonment.

According to Bits.media, Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the Financial Market Committee of the State Duma of Russia, stated that the second and third readings of the criminal liability bill for illegal cryptocurrency transactions will be postponed until the new State Duma is reviewed. The reason is that the Duma's spring session will end on July 27, and there will be an election recess from August to September, with the Duma election voting ending on September 20. Therefore, the review will not resume until the autumn session at the earliest.The bill completed its first reading in early July, with a maximum penalty of 7 years in prison for organizing illegal cryptocurrency circulation. The relevant penalty provisions are proposed to officially take effect on July 1, 2027. Under the current regulatory framework, Russian citizens can only buy and sell cryptocurrencies through institutions holding a license from the Central Bank of Russia, and P2P and over-the-counter transactions may face criminal liability. Aksakov denied concerns that the bill would affect cryptocurrency exchanges and P2P users, stating that the related worries are "unfounded." Meanwhile, another Russian government initiative to strengthen state control over cryptocurrencies, the "Digital Currency and Digital Rights Law," has also been postponed, with the original timelines for implementation in July and September now missed.

According to Decrypt, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Rossen Iossifov, the founder of the Bulgarian cryptocurrency exchange RG Coins, has been indicted for allegedly transferring approximately $290,000 in cryptocurrency assets that had been ordered to be forfeited by the court during his imprisonment.Prosecutors stated that in January 2024, while serving his sentence in federal prison, he conspired to transfer the assets involved through multiple cryptocurrency exchanges and mixing services to evade government seizure.Iossifov was previously sentenced to 111 months in prison in 2021 for participating in money laundering of nearly $5 million and assisting a Romanian cyber fraud gang in handling the proceeds, and he was ordered to pay restitution of over $2.6 million and forfeit related cryptocurrency assets. If the new charges are upheld, he could face an additional 25 years in prison.

A New York man was sentenced to 15 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release by a U.S. court for impersonating a cryptocurrency influencer on Telegram and using false staking returns as bait to defraud investors. 39-year-old Noman Saleem pleaded guilty to wire fraud in September 2025.Prosecutors stated that he created multiple fake Telegram accounts impersonating well-known crypto KOLs and attracted thousands of people to join his channels, even setting up paid "VIP sub-channels." Saleem claimed to victims that he could provide "guaranteed returns" through crypto staking or investment opportunities, inducing many to transfer their crypto assets into wallets under his control. However, prosecutors indicated that he did not actually engage in any staking operations and ceased communication after obtaining the funds, taking the victims' assets with him.The case resulted in losses exceeding $1.4 million, and the U.S. government has recovered and seized most of the funds.

According to HK01, the Hong Kong police have cracked a cross-border money laundering case. The involved group used 43 Hong Kong bank accounts to process funds from 34 fraud cases between June and September 2024, amounting to approximately HKD 18 million, and is suspected of laundering up to HKD 230 million in criminal proceeds through cryptocurrency transactions via bank accounts.The police investigation found that a 34-year-old woman from mainland China is suspected of coming to Hong Kong to set up multiple puppet bank accounts, assisting the criminal group in laundering approximately HKD 9.29 million in criminal proceeds, and purchasing cryptocurrency through virtual asset exchange shops to disguise the source and flow of funds. The woman was sentenced to 47.5 months in prison.The Hong Kong police remind that assisting a criminal group in handling funds could face up to 10 years in prison, and those involved in money laundering could face fines of up to HKD 5 million and imprisonment for up to 14 years.

Binance founder CZ disclosed on social media that over the past two years, he has donated $500,000 every six months to the nonprofit organization Prison Professors, totaling four donations and reaching $2 million. It is reported that this funding is primarily used to support free educational programs in U.S. prisons. CZ stated that he had not publicly disclosed this donation matter before.

The Hebei High Court released typical cases of cracking down on illegal fundraising. A certain man packaged an investment project with the concept of "metaverse" to promote the virtual goods investment project of the "Newmateworks" platform under the "Yishang United Community" to the public, inducing the masses to participate in the investment. He directly introduced 19 investors who invested a total of 15.3936 million yuan in the platform, of which 1.1014 million yuan has been returned, while 14.2922 million yuan has not been returned. The court found that this case used emerging technology concepts such as "metaverse" as a cover to implement fraudulent marketing, violating national financial management laws and regulations, with a huge amount involved. The behavior constituted the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits, and Chen was sentenced to five years and four months in prison and fined.