Brooklyn DA’s office disrupts crypto scam targeting Russian community

Hundreds of web domains and servers were taken down by law enforcement agencies in New York City as part of an operation to stop a cryptocurrency fraud scheme targeting the Russian community in Brooklyn. 

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said his office worked with the FBI to seize and disrupt 241 web domains and 112 servers after the tools were used to steal millions. 

The investigation began three years ago when a large number of Russian-speaking victims in Brooklyn told prosecutors they responded to Facebook ads in Russian offering investment opportunities. An investment adviser called them and walked them through the process of creating cryptocurrency accounts and transferring funds on investment platforms. 

When the victims tried to take their money out, they were locked out of their accounts and told they had to pay additional fees and taxes in order to get their funds. 

Gonzalez’s office said victims likely lost millions but authorities were able to claw back about $300,000 worth of stolen funds. 

Several of the seized websites were made to look like legitimate investment platforms and referenced U.S. government agencies or wealthy people like Elon Musk. 

Investigators found that criminals used IP addresses and infrastructure in Ukraine and several other Eastern European countries. Search warrants were executed in several countries allowing law enforcement to seize domains and servers.

The servers contained victim information, data for the websites and operational software. The seized data also showed that the scammers were running a secondary operation where they would contact victims weeks after the initial scam and offer to recover their stolen cryptocurrency for a price. 

“These criminals stole many millions of dollars from Russian-speaking victims through an elaborate investment scheme, then tried to exploit them again with false promises to recover their money,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez noted that his office has taken several similar actions over the last two years, disrupting and seizing about 400 domains associated with cryptocurrency investment fraud. 

Despite such efforts, new scam websites continued to re-emerge quickly — prompting law enforcement to specifically target the European backend servers powering the sites. 

Cryptocurrency investment fraud continues to be one of the most costly scams plaguing U.S. residents. 

A Treasury Department report released last month said between September 2023 and December 2025, more than $12.7 billion was stolen from Americans in cryptocurrency investment scams from victims in all 50 states and U.S. territories.