UK court jails crypto fraud gang over £4 million police impersonation scam

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UK crypto fraud gang jailed

Highlights

Southwark Crown Court sentenced Anthony Ikenwe, Hamza Bashir, and Kevin Nwamma for defrauding eight victims of over £4 million in cryptocurrency via fake police websites.
Investigators traced more than £1 million in crypto to Ikenwe's wallets and seized about £500,000 in cash from a Dubai safety deposit box linked to the gang.
The Met's Cryptocurrency Team used advanced tracing techniques to dismantle the group amid increasing UK and U.S. regulatory scrutiny of crypto-related fraud and money laundering.

Sentencing follows Met Police crypto fraud probe

As reported by The Block, citing the Metropolitan Police, the three men were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday after investigators linked them to a scheme that defrauded eight victims of cryptocurrency through fake police websites.

Police said the group impersonated officers and directed victims to convincing bogus sites, where their crypto holdings were stolen and then moved through a complex financial network. Investigators opened the case in January 2025 after victims reported the fraud, using blockchain transaction analysis, communications data, financial records and cryptocurrency exchange records to identify the suspects.

Anthony Ikenwe, 29, received six years for conspiracy to commit fraud and five years for money laundering. Hamza Bashir, 23, was sentenced to three years and nine months for conspiracy to commit fraud and three years for money laundering, while Kevin Nwamma, 25, received six years for conspiracy to commit fraud and five years for money laundering.

Detective Inspector Geoff Donoghue said the case involved "calculated manipulators" who exploited victims' trust by pretending to be police officers and used stolen money to support extravagant lifestyles.

Crypto crime pressure widens in UK and U.S.

Police said the stolen funds financed spending on cars, designer clothes and Rolex watches, despite one of the men having a recorded annual income of only £444. Investigators also traced more than £1 million in cryptocurrency linked to wallets controlled by Ikenwe and found about £500,000 in cash in a safety deposit box in Dubai.

The investigation also mapped frequent travel by the group, including trips to Thailand, Japan, Paris, Mykonos, the Maldives and the Seychelles. Donoghue said the Met's Cryptocurrency Team traced millions of pounds through a broad set of investigative techniques to dismantle a significant criminal network.

The case comes as authorities on both sides of the Atlantic increase scrutiny of crypto-related fraud and money laundering. In the U.S., prosecutors said on Thursday that a federal grand jury indicted Sioux Falls resident Benjamin Paul Wiener on 29 counts connected to an alleged $20 million fraud scheme.

Our earlier report on a New York money laundering case outlined federal charges against Zhuoying Chen and Haojie Zhang for allegedly laundering at least $43 million tied to cyber investment fraud between 2020 and 2022. Prosecutors said the network used dozens of shell companies and more than a hundred bank accounts to move victim funds and transfer proceeds abroad, highlighting a broader enforcement push against cross-border laundering linked to online scams.

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