The Rap Sheet
18 ARTICLESCrypto's most notorious criminals. Arrested, indicted, fugitive, or still tweeting.
Ross Ulbricht: The Dread Pirate Roberts
Built the world's first darknet marketplace. Got life in prison. Then got pardoned by Trump.
Mark Karpelès: The Man Who Lost 850,000 Bitcoin
Ran Mt. Gox, the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, straight into the ground.
Ruja Ignatova: The Cryptoqueen
Scammed $4 billion with a fake cryptocurrency. Vanished from the face of the Earth.
Alexander Vinnik: The BTC-e Laundromat
Ran a $4 billion crypto laundering operation. Washed 95% of all ransomware. Pled guilty in the US. Then Trump sent him home to Russia.
Zhimin Qian: The Goddess of Wealth
Ran a $6.6 billion Ponzi in China. Fled on a moped. Hid 61,000 BTC. Tried to become a queen. Literally.
Lazarus Group: North Korea's Crypto Army
A state-sponsored hacking unit that has stolen over $6 billion in crypto to fund a nuclear program.
Satish Kumbhani: BitConnect's Phantom
Ran the $2.4 billion BitConnect Ponzi scheme. Disappeared before the FBI could knock.
Fatih Özer: The Man Who Robbed Turkey and Ran
Ran Turkey's largest exchange. Stole $2 billion. Fled to Albania. Got 11,196 years. Found dead in his cell.
Lichtenstein & Razzlekhan: The Bitfinex Bonnie & Clyde
A tech bro and his rapper wife hid $4.5 billion in stolen Bitcoin. Got caught by their own OpSec fails.
Sam Bankman-Fried: The $8 Billion Fraud
Crypto's golden boy stole billions in customer funds. Got 25 years. Played League of Legends through it all.
Su Zhu & Kyle Davies: Three Arrows Capital
Ran crypto's most arrogant hedge fund. Blew up $3.5 billion. Su Zhu tried to flee by sea.
Do Kwon: The $40 Billion Vaporizer
Created LUNA/UST. Told critics they were poor. Destroyed $40 billion. Sentenced to 15 years.
Alex Mashinsky: Celsius's Lying Machine
Promised 'unbank yourself.' Gambled depositor funds. Lost $4.7 billion. Got 12 years.
CZ Zhao: Binance's $4.3 Billion Fine
Built the world's biggest crypto exchange. Pleaded guilty. Served 4 months. Got pardoned by Trump. Now advises governments.
Justin Sun: The Teflon Troll of Crypto
SEC charged. Investigated everywhere. Still free. Still tweeting. The most unkillable man in crypto.
Roger Ver: Bitcoin Jesus Falls From Grace
The original Bitcoin evangelist. Renounced US citizenship. Paid $49.9M to make it go away.
Axiom Exchange: The Insider Trading Exposé That Broke Polymarket
ZachXBT tweeted five sentences. $39.7 million in prediction bets followed. Then he named Axiom and published the receipts.
Jonathan Spalletta: The Collectibles Collector Who Killed Uranium Finance
Stole $54M from Uranium Finance. Spent it on Magic cards, Roman coins, and Pokémon. Created a Telegram 'War Room' to pretend to investigate his own hack. Got caught anyway.