Three Men Sentenced to Combined 13 Years and Nine Months for £4 Million Cryptocurrency Police Impersonation Scam

Three men were sentenced to a combined 13 years and nine months in prison on July 16 for operating a cryptocurrency fraud that impersonated police officers and stole more than £4 million from eight victims. Kevin Nwamma, 25, Anthony Ikenwe, 29, and Hamza Bashir, 23, were convicted at Southwark Crown Court.

Nwamma and Ikenwe each received six years for conspiracy to commit fraud and five years for money laundering, to run concurrently.

Bashir received three years and nine months for conspiracy to commit fraud and three years for money laundering, also concurrent. The scam began after victims reported the fraud to police in January 2025. The men told targets their cryptocurrency was at risk and directed them to transfer funds or provide account details to accounts the gang controlled.

They built fake websites that immediately stole the cryptocurrency and laundered it through a financial network spanning multiple jurisdictions. Metropolitan Police officers arrested the three men on November 20, 2025, at seven addresses across London and Essex. Nwamma was taken into custody naked in his bedroom in Watford.

Officers seized 40 mobile phones and recovered about £1 million of the victims' funds. Police also located roughly £500,000 in cash in a Dubai safety deposit box and traced a £60,000 car bought with cryptocurrency plus holidays to Thailand, Japan, Paris, Mykonos, the Maldives and Seychelles. Nwamma and Ikenwe pleaded guilty in April.

Bashir initially denied the charges, stood trial and changed his plea on the eighth day. The men had remained in custody since their arrests. One defendant had a recorded annual income of £444. Detective Inspector Geoff Donoghue of the Metropolitan Police Cryptocurrency Team said the investigation traced millions of pounds through blockchain analysis, financial records, exchange data and internet service provider information.