A 20-year-old Canadian stole 185 BTC. He is in prison now.

[Zaguru12]

This case involves other actors who are said to be accomplices. In other news, this young man's accomplice owns an exotic car dealership that I think is a big enough business to launder millions of dollars. Collectible and expensive items as they often serve that purpose.

Without even to read further I was certainly thinking this was actually the money laundering network that most of this scammers used. It is commonly been used by our politicians as it’s an easy way to clean up money because the car dealer wouldn’t be a suspect since their account or wallet is known to actually be used to Recieving large amount, and so the suspicion isn’t usually on them. I can guarantee you that there are many car businesses or export businesses like this that were purposely built for money laundering, this has been what we read most of the time, so I am confident this was how the money was taken out

[suzanne5223]

This is something that happened years ago, and aside from the link you provided, I believe there should be another discussion about it somewhere during March 2026, when he was arrested in North Miami while sitting in the back of a Rolls-Royce Cullinan.
What I have to say is that managing to steal a serious amount of Bitcoin through social engineering, and then starting to live like a celebrity and bragging about it on social media, is the fastest way to get caught.
Congrats to him

[danadc]

If he did all that, it's a security alert on Google. It's the first thing I thought. Besides, you can't deny he has a tremendous ability to access everything he did. He has talent, but he used it for bad things. Two years and one month doesn't seem like a fair sentence to me. It should be longer, or maybe five years of community service.All thieves, scammers, and even extortionists are people who need severe punishment so they learn not to mess with what isn't theirs. Furthermore, he seems immature because he went on such extravagant spending spree, drawing everyone's attention.

[Spaceman1000$]

I don't know how the American criminal justice system works, but I believe because of the high level of democracy they operate, they should be among the best judicial system we have in the world. however for such kind of criminal offense, 25 months is too little for a sentence given to this guy, 2 years for somebody that probably have ruined people lives, that's like a light sentence when compared to the crime he committed.

The way he spent his money showed that he never worked for it, and that is why sometimes I don't envy people that live luxurious life on a steady, because if you critically want to look at it, people that worked hard to earn their money spend very modestly.

[Queen uloma]

One thing that I have noticed about this young people is that they think they can be bribing the police and other government officials that want to bring them out that their work it not clean.

They will be living a luxurious life when their parent do not have the kind of money they are having. Just at his teenage age, he is so rich like that and not hiding it. He unintentionally planned his own sentencing.

There are many scammers like this, but some are not noticed. But earning huge amount of money can make someone make the mistakes he made.

Personally for me, Most young people have the mindset that money can solve everything, even when they engage in illegal activities. One thing that makes them have this kind of mindset is that, once they make big money they will bribe the police and other government officials to cover them up.

Just imagine someone that’s not up to 20 years is living a luxury life that his parents can’t even afford. Such life style can attract unnecessary attention. Too much show up and greed can expose many things that’s suppose to be unnoticeable. Once you start making money from illegal ways you can never escape the consequences forever.

[Sanitough]

This is something that happened years ago, and aside from the link you provided, I believe there should be another discussion about it somewhere during March 2026, when he was arrested in North Miami while sitting in the back of a Rolls-Royce Cullinan.

No, this happened this year, but he already began scamming people years ago but probably the amount he scammed was not big enough that it did not result in a thorough investigation until this one.

I haven't found another discussion here on that specific month but the crime was committed in that month which was reported in June 2026.

Canadian who stole $13M US in crypto bought Lamborghini, BMWs
Teen admits to scamming $13M in crypto to splurge on private jets, Lambo

[Giwagi56]

He lived lavishly after stealing these Bitcoins, but was caught and sentenced to 25 months in prison.
Trenton Johnston posed as a Google support employee, tricked people into accessing crypto wallets, and spent the proceeds on Lamborghinis, private jets, and parties in Miami, jewelry.
The scammer became so emboldened that he openly bragged about his schemes on Discord and came to the attention of the police after his luxury Rolls-Royce was pulled over.


https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/crypto-scammer-who-stole-13-million-caught-after-bragging-about-it-on-discord-3422381/

This story reminds me of a previously published story about a 22-year-old guy and his team of Bitcoin thieves, who also wanted the high life and were also caught. Life doesn't teach these guys anything.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5593660.msg67127586#msg67127586

Why is it that many of these people that scam people are young boys? It will be difficult to see someone who is old or mature enough to be a scammer, many of these scammers are young boys, this is to show how despirate young people want to make money and live and expensive life, sometimes we should not blame the government or our leaders for some citizens crime because some of them know what they are doing and they are doing it to live a life that their family can not afford.

It is not bad to live an expensive life but it should be a legal money or legal work, it is not easy to make it in life but you have to work hard, the worst part is that when they steal from people they will not hide, they will start living the life that no one had ever see with them.

[Hamza2424]

He lived lavishly after stealing these Bitcoins, but was caught and sentenced to 25 months in prison.

This story reminds me of a previously published story about a 22-year-old guy and his team of Bitcoin thieves, who also wanted the high life and were also caught. Life doesn't teach these guys anything.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5593660.msg67127586#msg67127586

Easy come, easy go. His bragging online did not catch him, but it must have made the case against him stronger. It is only a matter of time before criminals like this get caught. But it is really funny that we, with white money, are afraid to show off, while he, with black money, didn't care. He was inviting trouble from the start, but it's good he got caught now.

His story resembles another story of a person who teamed up with a money launderer who stole money in the same way. Is this the same story or a different one? Was he really sentenced to only 25 months, or did you mean to say 25 years?

[Cryptmuster]

185 Bitcoin at the current exchange rate is worth around $15 million, that’s a huge amount of money. I think the sentence should have been much harsher than 25 months in prison. He gave himself away through his own lifestyle. First of all, he attracted a lot of attention, and that was his biggest mistake. On the other hand, I’m glad he behaved that way, because I think it was precisely what led to his capture.

[B-BossMan]

One thing that I have noticed about this young people is that they think they can be bribing the police and other government officials that want to bring them out that their work it not clean.

They will be living a luxurious life when their parent do not have the kind of money they are having. Just at his teenage age, he is so rich like that and not hiding it. He unintentionally planned his own sentencing.

There are many scammers like this, but some are not noticed. But earning huge amount of money can make someone make the mistakes he made.

Personally for me, Most young people have the mindset that money can solve everything, even when they engage in illegal activities. One thing that makes them have this kind of mindset is that, once they make big money they will bribe the police and other government officials to cover them up.

Just imagine someone that’s not up to 20 years is living a luxury life that his parents can’t even afford. Such life style can attract unnecessary attention. Too much show up and greed can expose many things that’s suppose to be unnoticeable. Once you start making money from illegal ways you can never escape the consequences forever.

This are things that many young boys takes as normal thing in life, back in the days you will not be hearing all these scammers stuffs as it's happening everywhere now, thier mindset is always to make quick money without passing through any stress. Youths of now adays are stick to make anyhow money, being it fraud money or illegal money, just to make a good living for themselves. Technology has already opened up thier eyes,, so they only get the believe that, there's no real money anymore other than fraud money or illegal money. Imagine this guy that did this now, don't be surprise they are other younger guys that did or stolen more than what he did, we just ha e to careful on how we train our younger children and warn them against fraud and illegal money.
 

[boyptc]

How many are there with so much holdings that don't know how to keep themselves away from these scam threats?

And for these young ones who knows how to reverse engineer the conversation, they always think that getting away from what they did is easy.

I remember also that guy, Malone Lam who have scammed people together with his friends who also lived lavishly and made a lot of parties and also bought a lot of luxury cars got caught.

The scheme is also the same, pretended to be google and gemini support but the amount they scammed is more than this, and he's on 20s as well.

[SatoPrincess]

This is the umpteenth time I have read cases of scammers stealing huge amounts of bitcoin from victims. I don’t understand how someone can amass that many bitcoins and still not know how to protect themselves from scams.

Everyone here can agree that the time doesn’t match the crime. I doubt this scammer is repentant, he’s only sorry he got caught. As far as I’m concerned, his sentence only taught him that he can get away with more crimes if he has the money and best lawyers.

[Felicity_Tide]

~snip

This story reminds me of a previously published story about a 22-year-old guy and his team of Bitcoin thieves, who also wanted the high life and were also caught. Life doesn't teach these guys anything.

Scamming someone about $13 million and still bragging about it on the internet space has to be one of the strangest/weirdest thing ever. Turns out a lot of people actually fall for this Google customer support scam than I imagined, because this isn't the very first case. The infamous Malone Lam scam, involving about $245 million, was also done with this same scamming tactics... Turns out being rich doesn't make someone less vulnerable.

And one terrible thing about these cases is that arresting the scammer doesn't necessarily fix what has happened. $3.8 million is just a compensation and doesn't replace everything that the victim has lost_{($13 million)}. Quite a shame that the scammer could be out of prison in just two years.

[Juicyhome]

One thing that I have noticed about this young people is that they think they can be bribing the police and other government officials that want to bring them out that their work it not clean.

They will be living a luxurious life when their parent do not have the kind of money they are having. Just at his teenage age, he is so rich like that and not hiding it. He unintentionally planned his own sentencing.

There are many scammers like this, but some are not noticed. But earning huge amount of money can make someone make the mistakes he made.

He should know better that his living in America where there is no room for bribing and living above your earn,  if he was to be a Nigerian he probably be free and moving around with police , he is too young to have such properties,  is a good news he was caught and sentence to prison, he will serve as an example for other scammers who live on people's pain. This Genz does have patience for work, they want to be rich overnight and all they think of is how to scam to enjoy their quich wealth,  this generation believe on fast money, that's why crime keep increasing in the society  today.

At 20 he lack management skills,  he's not fully developed to understand how to make us of money coupled with the amount he stole is so much for him to act normal, money has a bad spirit and if you don't have control it will expose you, that's what happened to him, he couldn't hide the money fir themselves because is bigger than him and he has no plan for it.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

25 months seems like a very lenient prison sentence for such a large fraud. He will probably be able to walk free in 18 months.

I don’t like reading about stuff like this. I hope he learns how badly he affected other people whilst he is refoecting on his actions in prison. Stupid kid, he ruined his life too.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

I thought I was the only one not feeling comfortable with the judgment, or probably we don't know if he bribed the judge as well with the money he stole  

Is just 2 years and a month and I don't think it is enough to serve the sentence for performing criminal act in this way considering the rate at which he has scammed and hacked innocent users. This is not also about being lenient in showing mercy or not, because he also never applied the same to his victims before claiming their assets; they had better allow him to serve his term completely and do justice accordingly.

[Pandorak]

He’s still very young, but he’s already bold enough to commit a crime like that, it even seems as though what he did was very well planned.

He lived lavishly after stealing these Bitcoins, but was caught and sentenced to 25 months in prison.

People like this will always exist, constantly scheming to get their hands on large sums of money relatively quickly and easily, without having to work hard. And honestly, seeing that his sentence was only 25 months in prison is quite disappointing, he should have received more than that, at least 5-10 years, to truly serve as a deterrent. Besides, he’s still young, he’ll still have plenty of opportunities after he gets out of prison. At the very least, he needs to truly reflect on the crimes he’s committed.

[EluguHcman]

https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/crypto-scammer-who-stole-13-million-caught-after-bragging-about-it-on-discord-3422381/ “We actually smacked a 185btc target today,” he wrote, before adding: “Club feels mad good after today.”

The nature will always find it means to expose those doing evils from their secret places.
The guy did not actually see his doom coming from that slight move of his post on the media.
He may have even been making these brags in his other posts online but had not been so attracted to this very one on the discord which landed him in the trouble. Indeed such a smart move of the agencies that were that sensitive enough to dig into the caption of the post despite it being appeared ordinarily like the contents we all lives with the freedom of speech even in the internet.

I bet some will see the post and treat it just casual.
The truth is that you can not assume Bitcoin is safe place where you can do evil and get Scott free all just because its Decentralized and digitalized characters. I guess that is also one of the reasons why scammers also attempted the medium to execute their illegal transactions.

[knuckey]

It turns out that even with the classic method, people can be deceived in this day and age. I don't know what scenario he used to steal. What is clear is that he targeted people who don't have extensive knowledge about account security systems. A sentence of 25 months is not commensurate with what he stole. At least 10-15 years so that the deterrent effect is felt in his life.

[MArsland]

But only 25 months in jail is just like a slap on the wrist for this people. They should have getting harsher punishment.

Wow a 25 month sentence for a $13m  theft this absolutely a joke. If he could managed to hide even a little portion from that 185 BTC, where the police can’t recover it he will be walking out of the prison at the age of 22 as a multi millionaire. This kind of light sentences does not stop criminals. This makes crypto theft to look like an high paying job with just a brief temporary pause.

This young scammers will continue to take the gamble, until the court systerm starts to handle decade long sentences for digital theft.

25 months is too light for a scam involving millions of dollars. It is very unreasonable just because the young man is under 25 years old. What kind of legal leniency he was only sentenced to briefly and after coming out at such a young age with his fraudster brain it is likely that he will commit a much greater fraud.