Three men have been jailed for impersonating police in a $5.3 million UK cryptocurrency scam

Three men have been jailed in the UK for a £4 million ($5.3 million) cryptocurrency scam in which they posed as police officers to convince victims to hand over their coins, then spent the proceeds on Rolex watches, shopping and luxury holidays.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that the three phoned eight victims who claimed to be officers, warned them that their cryptocurrencies were at risk, and spoke to them to share account details or transfer money to what they believed were secure police accounts. statement. The group built fake police websites, and the coins were promptly stolen and passed through a complex laundering network.

At Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, Anthony Eknuye, 29, and Kevin Nwama, 25, were each sentenced to six years in prison for conspiracy to commit fraud and five years for money laundering, to run concurrently. Hamza Bashir (23 years old) was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison for fraud and three years for money laundering at the same time.

Rolex, the money stash in Dubai and the Maldives

Investigators found that the men were living lives far beyond their means. One had a recorded income of just £444 a year, yet the group bought a car worth around £60,000 in cryptocurrencies, kept around £500,000 in cash in a safety deposit box in Dubai, and vacationed in Thailand, Japan, Paris, Mykonos, the Maldives and the Seychelles.

They shopped at Harrods, Hermès and Louis Vuitton and routinely transferred cryptocurrencies to prepaid payment cards, according to the Metropolitan Police. Officers linked more than £1 million worth of cryptocurrencies to wallets controlled by Ekenwe, and traced the stolen money flowing to bank accounts linked to Nwama’s luxury chauffeur business. The value of the luxury goods found in the searches was estimated at more than £26,000.

The case began when victims came forward in January 2025. The Met’s cryptocurrency team said it used a data-driven approach — collecting blockchain transactions, exchange records, communications, financial records and ISP data — to link what initially appeared as separate crimes into a single organized network operating across multiple platforms and jurisdictions.

Detective Inspector Geoff Donoghue, from the force’s cryptocurrency team, said: “This was an extremely complex investigation into a group of nepotistic manipulators who exploited the trust of victims by pretending to be police officers,” adding that “criminals must not be under illusions – policing is evolving alongside technology.”

In November, officers raided seven addresses across London and Essex, arresting the three men and seizing luxury goods, cryptocurrency and 40 mobile phones. They recovered around £1 million linked to the victims. Eknuye and Nwama pleaded guilty in April, while Al-Bashir denied involvement and went on trial, changing his plea on the eighth day after being presented with extensive evidence.

Pretend to be authorities

Impersonating police has become a recurring theme in cryptocurrency crimes. The closest similarity to the Met case came last year, when A.J An imposter pretends to be UK police He stole $2.8 million in Bitcoin from the victim’s hardware wallet. In the United States, scammers pretend to be Denver police A woman convinced She missed jury duty, then had her cash inserted into a bitcoin ATM to scan a fake note — one of a wave of impersonation scams the FBI says she carried out. It hits older Americans hard.

Sometimes the fake officers appear in person. In France, thieves wear police uniforms Hold a couple in the knife In a $1 million Bitcoin robbery, while in Ukraine, there were men pretending to be policemen Arrested To extort $250,000 in Tether from an entrepreneur.

The Metropolitan Police said it was still working with British and international partners to identify others linked to the plot and recover assets for the victims.