Brooklyn prosecutors and the FBI have disrupted a crypto investment-fraud network accused of targeting Russian-speaking people in the United States, seizing or disabling 241 websites and 112 servers connected to the operation.
The action followed a three-year investigation and was carried out last week, according to CoinDesk. Authorities said the suspected network used online infrastructure and internet addresses in Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. No arrests were announced.
The case highlights how crypto fraud operations can combine advertising, impersonation and repeated attempts to extract money from victims. Investigators said the network first attracted people through Russian-language advertisements on Facebook, then used fake advisers to persuade them to buy cryptocurrency and transfer it to fraudulent trading platforms.
Once victims attempted to withdraw their funds, the platforms allegedly blocked access or demanded additional payments described as taxes or fees. The same victims were later contacted again with offers to recover their money, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Data recovered during the investigation showed that these follow-up approaches could take place only weeks after the original fraud.
How the alleged scheme worked
The operation relied on a familiar investment-fraud pattern: an online advertisement promised an opportunity, a supposed adviser provided personal guidance, and the victim was directed to send cryptocurrency to a platform that appeared to support trading.
The platforms were not simply used to collect the initial transfers. Investigators said they also displayed barriers when victims tried to withdraw funds. Requests for further payments, allegedly for taxes or fees, created another opportunity for the operators to demand money from people who were already trying to recover their losses.
The alleged recovery offers added a second layer to the fraud. People who had already lost money were approached with promises that their funds could be retrieved, although the authorities said these offers were false. Some victims told investigators they had lost their entire life savings.
Brooklyn’s District Attorney’s Office had previously seized or disrupted 400 domains linked to crypto investment fraud. However, replacement websites continued to appear, making it difficult to stop the operators by targeting domain names alone.
Why investigators targeted servers
In the latest operation, investigators focused on 112 servers hosted by companies in Eastern Europe and the United States. Those servers contained victim information and the software used to operate the fraudulent websites, according to the authorities.
The strategy was intended to disrupt the underlying infrastructure rather than only remove individual websites. By targeting the servers, officials sought to make it harder for the suspected operators to quickly launch replacement sites and continue contacting victims.
Authorities have seized approximately $300,000 so far and are working to recover more. The amount recovered represents only part of the alleged losses, which prosecutors described as being in the tens of millions of dollars.
The operation did not include announced arrests. The material released about the case identifies the websites, servers and digital infrastructure as targets of the disruption, while the alleged perpetrators remain the subject of the investigation.
The wider cost of crypto investment fraud
The investigation comes against a backdrop of substantial losses reported to the FBI. In its 2025 annual report, the bureau recorded $8.65 billion in investment-fraud losses. Crypto investment scams accounted for approximately 84% of that total, based on the figures cited by officials.
Across every category of internet crime, crypto-linked losses reached $11.37 billion, or about 54% of the FBI’s reported $20.88 billion in overall losses. These figures reflect reported losses, meaning the total does not necessarily capture every incident or every dollar lost.
Crypto assets are frequently used in online fraud because victims can be instructed to transfer funds directly to wallets or platforms controlled by scammers. Once sent, recovering the money can be difficult, particularly when the people operating the scheme use infrastructure across several countries.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar market data at 20:58-20:59 on October 15, 2026, showed mixed performance among the listed crypto-related assets:
- Ethereum Name Service (ENS): $5.7655017858, up 0.17% in 24 hours and down 7.73% over seven days.
- AKEDO (AKE): $0.0310355411, up 17.6% in 24 hours and 13.64% over seven days.
- Pharos (PROS): $0.5914908959, up 1.16% in 24 hours and down 9.12% over seven days.
- Oasis (ROSE): $0.0082543334, up 2.8% in 24 hours and 9.21% over seven days.
These market movements are separate from the Brooklyn investigation and do not indicate any connection between the listed assets and the alleged fraud network.
