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A 20-year-old California man has been sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison for his role in a crypto theft ring that defrauded victims of more than $250 million.<\/p>\n
Marlon Ferro, of Santa Ana, known online as \u201cGothFerrari,\u201d was sentenced to 78 months in prison alongside three years of supervised release and $2.5 million in restitution, the US Attorney\u2019s Office for the District of Columbia said<\/a> Wednesday. Ferro pleaded guilty in October 2025 to participating in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) conspiracy.<\/p>\n \u201cMarlon Ferro served as the criminal enterprise\u2019s instrument of last resort,\u201d US Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro wrote, adding that when co-conspirators couldn\u2019t talk victims into surrendering their crypto or hack into their accounts remotely, they sent Ferro to break in physically and steal the hardware wallets storing the funds.<\/p>\n In a February 2024 incident, he traveled to Winnsboro, Texas, broke into a home and walked out with a hardware wallet holding about 100 Bitcoin worth more than $5 million at the time. Months later, he flew to New Mexico, spent days staking out a residence and used a brick to smash his way inside while co-conspirators monitored the victim\u2019s location through his iCloud account. A home surveillance camera caught him in the act.<\/p>\n Ferro using a brick to break into a victim\u2019s home. Source: Justice<\/em><\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>Coinbase faces lawsuit over frozen funds from $55M crypto theft<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n The conspiracy ran from late 2023 to early 2025, with members across California, Connecticut, New York, Florida and overseas. The conspirators each had a role, including hacking databases, identifying targets, making fraudulent calls and laundering money. When victims kept their funds on hardware wallets that couldn\u2019t be accessed remotely, the gang turned to Ferro.<\/p>\n Ferro and his co-conspirators spent the stolen funds on luxury items, including Herm\u00e8s Birkin bags, watches priced up to $500,000, private jets and exotic cars worth as much as $3.8 million. Nightclub tabs alone reached $500,000 in a single evening.<\/p>\n Ferro also laundered money using fake identification documents, purchased over $255,000 in designer goods for co-conspirators, and helped a jailed conspiracy leader by converting crypto to cash to cover legal fees.<\/p>\n The investigation was led by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation.<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>Law enforcement freezes $41M connected to $150M crypto Ponzi collapse<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n April was the worst month for crypto hacks in over a year, with losses totaling $629.7 million<\/a>, according to DefiLlama. KelpDAO\u2019s $293 million exploit<\/a> and Drift Protocol\u2019s $280 million<\/a> hack drove the bulk of the damage, together accounting for more than 90% of monthly losses.<\/p>\n According to Chainalysis security head Yaniv Nissenboim, April\u2019s hack surge reflects a shift toward sophisticated attacks targeting the infrastructure connecting onchain protocols to offchain systems.<\/p>\n Magazine: <\/strong><\/em>AI-driven hacks could kill DeFi \u2014 unless projects act now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\nWhen hacking didn\u2019t work, they sent a burglar<\/h2>\n
Crypto hack losses top $630 million in April<\/h2>\n