### Massachusetts Man Recovers $140,000 Lost in Crypto Scam

Aleksey Madan, 69, experienced a moment of unexpected fortune this week when he received a check for $140,000 from Massachusetts officials. This amount represented the entirety of the money he had lost to a deceptive cryptocurrency scheme. Describing his feelings, Madan said, "It feels amazing. I'm overjoyed. And also in shock."

The funds returned to Madan were among a substantial sum seized by Massachusetts authorities from an elaborate fraudulent operation. This scam particularly targeted Russian-speaking seniors online, some of whom saw their life savings vanish. SpireBit, the fraudulent entity at the heart of this case, lured victims with promises of lucrative returns through ads on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, misusing Elon Musk's name with a fabricated endorsement.

An NPR investigation last year cast a spotlight on SpireBit, detailing the experiences of two victims who were conned into transferring large amounts of money to what they believed were legitimate cryptocurrency wallets. The trail led to fake LinkedIn profiles, stock photos masquerading as company executives, and a false London address that was actually a kitchenware business. As NPR dug deeper, financial regulators in the UK warned that SpireBit was operated by "fraudsters."

After NPR's report, the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office began investigating SpireBit, officially incorporated as SBT Investments. Posing as customers, investigators tracked down the crypto wallets used by SpireBit. In May, a court issued a judgment that froze the company's assets on the Binance trading platform. Officials seized a total of $269,000 from SpireBit's wallet, which is now being distributed among four victims in Massachusetts.

One of the other victims highlighted in the NPR investigation, Naum Lantsman, 75, from Los Angeles, lost his life savings of $340,000. Despite his family reporting the theft to the California Attorney General's Office, a formal investigation was not initiated.

SpireBit's tactics are part of a growing type of online fraud known as pig butchering, where scammers build trust and friendships over weeks or months before making off with significant amounts of money. According to the FBI, crypto scammers stole more than $5.6 billion from Americans online last year.