Brooklyn prosecutors and the FBI have seized or disrupted 241 websites and 112 servers tied to a crypto investment scam that allegedly stole tens of millions of dollars from Russian-speaking victims across the United States.

The operation ran last week. It capped a three-year investigation into a fraud network that leaned on online infrastructure and IP addresses in Ukraine and other Eastern European countries, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. No arrests were announced.

The scammers ran Russian-language Facebook ads promising investment opportunities. Fake advisers then called the marks, coached them to buy cryptocurrency, and steered the funds to fraudulent trading platforms. When victims tried to withdraw, the platforms locked their accounts or demanded extra payments for supposed taxes and fees.

Then came the second act. The operators "tried to exploit them again with false promises to recover their money," Gonzalez said. Recovered data showed they re-contacted victims a few weeks after the initial fraud, offering to retrieve the stolen funds — for a price, of course.

Why target servers this time?

The Brooklyn DA's Virtual Currency Unit had already seized or disrupted 400 domains tied to crypto investment fraud. The problem was whack-a-mole: replacement sites kept appearing within days.

So investigators shifted the aim. This time they went after the servers themselves — hosted by Eastern European and U.S. companies — that held victim data and the software running the fraud. The operational goal was simple. Stop the operators from spinning up new sites quickly by taking out the machinery underneath them.

What does this change for victims and for the crews still running these schemes? For victims, Brooklyn authorities have seized about $300,000 so far and are working to recover more — prosecutors say some people lost their entire life savings. For the operators, losing hosted infrastructure and stored victim data is a deeper wound than losing a domain name.

The bigger fraud picture

The case lands against an ugly backdrop. Crypto investment scams accounted for roughly 84% of the $8.65 billion in investment-fraud losses reported to the FBI in 2025, according to the bureau's annual report.

Across all internet-crime categories, the numbers climb higher. Crypto-linked losses totaled $11.37 billion, about 54% of the $20.88 billion reported overall. Both percentages come straight from the FBI's own totals.

The enforcement shift matters beyond one borough. Seizing infrastructure rather than just domains raises the cost of rebuilding for fraud networks that have treated U.S. victims as a renewable resource. With no arrests announced yet, the criminal phase of the investigation remains open — and the recovery window for victims depends on how much more money Brooklyn prosecutors can claw back from the seized servers' records.