Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s Virtual Currency Unit, working with the FBI and technical partners, has dismantled the infrastructure behind a multinational cryptocurrency investment scam that targeted Russian-speaking victims across the United States. The operation, announced on October 14, disabled 112 servers and 241 fraudulent domains, striking at the technical backbone of the scheme.
According to investigators, victims were lured through Russian-language Facebook advertisements and directed to fake crypto investment platforms by purported advisers. Withdrawals were later blocked or conditioned on additional fees and taxes. The investigation also uncovered a second-stage “recovery scam” aimed at previous victims, while authorities estimate that tens of millions of dollars were stolen; only about $300,000 has been seized so far. Some Brooklyn victims lost their entire life savings.
The VCU previously disrupted hundreds of related scam domains and says the next phase will focus on recovering additional stolen funds and preventing the network from rebuilding. Investigators retained server data, victim information, and software that could support further enforcement actions.
