UK Sentences Three to 28 Years Over £5m Cryptocurrency Scam

Three individuals, including two Nigerian nationals and an accomplice, have been sentenced to a combined 28 years and nine months in prison for their role in a cryptocurrency scam that netted nearly £5 million from unsuspecting victims.

The trio, Anthony Ikenwe, 29; Kevin Nwamma, 25; and Hamza Bashir, 23, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering at Southwark Crown Court. Investigators revealed that the group posed as police officers, contacting victims with false claims that their cryptocurrency accounts had been compromised.

Victims were persuaded to disclose sensitive account credentials or transfer their digital assets into what they believed were secure accounts. However, these accounts were actually controlled by the fraudsters, who sourced victims' personal information from the dark web and created fake websites designed to mimic legitimate cryptocurrency platforms.

Police investigators discovered a video showing one of the suspects speaking with a victim while receiving real-time instructions from a co-conspirator via Snapchat. The evidence exposed an organized criminal network operating across multiple online platforms and jurisdictions.