Canadian Behind $48M Crypto Theft Jailed Again in US for New $1M Scam

A Hamilton man already notorious for orchestrating one of the largest crypto thefts in Canadian history has been sentenced to another year behind bars in the US for a separate $1 million ￰0￱ Takeaways: The Canadian behind a record $48M crypto theft has been jailed again in the US for a new $1M ￰1￱ on bail, he ran another scheme targeting 200 victims using hijacked X ￰2￱ prosecutors call him a ‘serial online fraudster’ who exploited SIM swaps and phishing to steal ￰3￱ in his early 20s, the man, whose identity remains protected under Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act, was found guilty of targeting roughly 200 individuals in a 2022 fraud campaign while he was out on ￰4￱ prior offense was a staggering $48 million crypto heist pulled off at the age of 17 using a SIM swap trick to take over American tech entrepreneur Josh Jones’ ￰5￱ Prosecutors Label Canadian Hacker a ‘Serial Online Fraudster’ In court filings , US prosecutors branded him a “serial online fraudster” who had willingly plunged himself into ￰6￱ legal team painted a different picture, one of a troubled Ontario youth shaped by the internet, seeking validation in online ￰7￱ 2020 theft shocked ￰8￱ had impersonated Jones to manipulate his telecom provider into reassigning the SIM card tied to Jones’ ￰9￱ access to two-factor authentication codes, he drained the entrepreneur’s wallet and laundered the funds.

A clue that led police to the teen was his purchase of the PlayStation username “God” shortly after the heist, paid for with stolen ￰10￱ digital trail led authorities to a PlayStation console in his home, sealing the ￰11￱ a public apology and a pledge to change, court documents reveal the young man returned to fraud almost ￰12￱ attorneys say that during his release, he and co-conspirators manipulated staff at X into giving them access to high-profile ￰13￱ then promoted fake crypto raffles, draining users’ wallets through phishing sites. 7% of Canadians who reported owning crypto assets in 2023 used their crypto to pay a ransom, according to a recent survey by the Ontario Securities ￰14￱ — John Paul Koning (@jp_koning) March 19, 2024 The new wave of thefts, combined with his ongoing mental health struggles and drug use following juvenile detention, formed the basis for his most recent sentencing in ￰15￱ has been ordered to pay $320,000 in restitution and an $83,000 ￰16￱ American defense lawyer, Stuart Sears, emphasized that his client now understands the damage he caused.

“He is painfully aware of the errors in his judgment,” Sears ￰17￱ man is expected to be deported to Canada after serving his US ￰18￱ Loses $3M in Crypto Phishing Scam As reported, a cryptocurrency investor has fallen victim to a phishing scam , losing $3.05 million in Tether (USDT) after unknowingly signing a malicious blockchain ￰19￱ loss, flagged by blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain on Wednesday, underscores the rising threat of phishing attacks targeting digital asset ￰20￱ attacker exploited a common habit among crypto users: validating only the first and last few characters of a wallet address while ignoring the ￰21￱ investors lost over $2.2 billion to hacks , scams, and breaches in the first half of 2025, driven largely by wallet compromises and phishing attacks, according to CertiK’s latest security ￰22￱ breaches alone caused $1.7 billion in losses across just 34 incidents, while phishing scams accounted for over $410 million across 132 attacks.