UK court jails three men over $5.3 million crypto police scam

Three men have been sentenced in the UK over a £4 million, or about $5.3 million, crypto fraud that targeted people by pretending to be police. For everyday crypto holders, the case is a reminder that a wallet transfer can be final, even when the person asking for it sounds official.

The Metropolitan Police said Anthony Ikenwe, 29, Kevin Nwamma, 25, and Hamza Bashir, 23, contacted eight victims while posing as officers. According to the Met, the victims were told their cryptocurrency was in danger and were persuaded to either give up account details or move funds into accounts they believed were controlled by police for safekeeping.

Instead, the Met said, the crypto was stolen and moved through a laundering network. Money laundering means taking proceeds from crime and routing them through accounts, wallets, businesses or purchases to make the funds harder to trace.

Sentences handed down at Southwark Crown Court

At Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, Ikenwe and Nwamma were each sentenced to six years for conspiracy to commit fraud and five years for money laundering, according to the Metropolitan Police. Those terms will run at the same time.

Bashir received a sentence of three years and nine months for fraud and three years for money laundering, also to be served concurrently, the Met said.

The police force said the group used fake police websites that looked convincing enough to support the calls. That extra layer matters in fraud cases because victims may search for reassurance while under pressure, then see a site that appears to confirm the scammer’s story.

Luxury spending and assets under investigation

Detectives found signs that the men were spending at a level that did not match their stated income, according to the Met. One of the men had recorded annual income of only £444, while the group used crypto to buy a car worth nearly £60,000, police said.

The Metropolitan Police said investigators also found about £500,000 in cash stored in a safety deposit box in Dubai. The group spent money at Harrods, Hermès and Louis Vuitton and took trips to Thailand, Japan, Paris, Mykonos, the Maldives and the Seychelles, according to police.

The Met said the men regularly converted cryptocurrency into prepaid payment cards. Officers also linked more than £1 million in crypto to wallets controlled by Ikenwe and traced stolen funds into bank accounts connected to Nwamma’s luxury chauffeur business, according to the police statement.

Police said luxury items recovered during searches were worth more than £26,000. About £1 million connected to victims has been recovered so far, and officers are continuing to trace assets, according to the Met.

How investigators tied the case together

The investigation began after victims reported the fraud in January 2025, the Metropolitan Police said. Its Cryptocurrency Team used blockchain transactions, exchange records, communications, financial records and internet service provider data to connect incidents that first appeared separate.

Blockchain records are public transaction logs for many crypto networks, but they usually show wallet addresses rather than names. Investigators often need exchange data and other records to connect those addresses to real people, which is what the Met said it did in this case across multiple platforms and jurisdictions.

The Metropolitan Police said the case involved an organized network rather than isolated calls. The force has not said that all victim funds have been recovered.

This story draws on original reporting from Decrypt.