London Trio Jailed for Posing as Cops and Stealing £4M in Crypto

Three men in London were sentenced to jail for posing as police officers and stealing over £4 million in cryptocurrency from eight victims. The scam, which began in January 2025, involved convincing victims to transfer their assets into fake secure accounts, promising protection under the guise of official law enforcement.

The scammers, who were identified as Anthony Ikenwe, 29, Kevin Nwamma, 25, and Hamza Bashir, 23, used phone calls to direct victims to websites resembling official police pages. Once the cryptocurrency was transferred, it was quickly moved to other wallets and accounts.

After nearly a year of tracing the stolen funds, officers raided seven properties in London and Essex on November 20. The investigation revealed that one of the suspects had annual earnings of just £444, yet investigators found evidence of extensive expensive travel and shopping, funded by the stolen crypto.

The recovered cryptocurrency helped fund trips to Thailand, Japan, Paris, Mykonos, the Maldives, and the Seychelles, along with purchases at Harrods, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton. Police also recovered 40 mobile phones, £26,000 in luxury items, and £500,000 in cash from a safe deposit box in Dubai.

Despite recovering around £1 million of the stolen funds, police warn that getting cryptocurrency back after it's been transferred can be difficult.