Brooklyn prosecutors in New York, working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), disrupted an Eastern European crypto-fraud network accused of stealing tens of millions of dollars from Americans, mostly Russian speakers.
The operation, carried out last week and announced on Wednesday, resulted in the shutdown of 241 websites and the seizure of 112 servers hosted by companies in Eastern Europe and the United States, according to a statement from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. No arrests were made.
“These criminals stole many millions of dollars from Russian-speaking victims through a sophisticated investment scheme, then tried to defraud them again with false promises to return their money,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. He credited the District Attorney’s Office’s Virtual Currency Unit and the FBI with uncovering the network’s infrastructure.
The seizure of the servers became a key moment in the operation, as it disrupted the scammers’ ability to create new websites and contact victims. “We shut down the backend of this operation,” said Assistant District Attorney Alona Katz, who led the investigation, according to Bloomberg.
The operation comes amid a rise in cryptocurrency-related fraud across the United States. According to FBI data cited by Bloomberg, Americans reported losing $11.4 billion to cryptocurrency scams in 2025—22% more than the previous year.