A New York resident received 15 months for impersonating crypto influencers in a fake staking scheme
A US federal court has sentenced 39-year-old Noman Salim from Queens and Levittown. He was found guilty of orchestrating a fraudulent scheme in which he impersonated well-known cryptocurrency influencers. The prison sentence is 15 months, followed by three years of supervised release.
Salim's criminal activity lasted at least from December 2020 to March 2021. His approach was simple but effective: he copied the usernames of popular crypto personalities on Telegram and created fake public channels that thousands of users subscribed to. He then launched paid VIP chats, access to which cost between $500 and $600 in cryptocurrency. Victims believed they were communicating directly with the real influencer.
After that, Salim created a similar scheme under the name of a second crypto influencer, significantly expanding his audience. In these chats, he offered staking investment contracts with fixed returns for periods ranging from 30 to 90 days, promising higher payouts for large deposits. However, no actual investments were made — all funds went directly to the fraudster.
Mechanism of Deception and Amount of Damage
Victims transferred cryptocurrency to wallets controlled by Salim. Once the assets arrived, he cut off all communication and disappeared with the money. According to the investigation materials, the total amount of damage was at least $1.4 million in cryptocurrency and fiat dollars.
Notably, Salim returned most of this amount to the state as part of a pretrial agreement. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow. The defendant pleaded guilty in September 2025.
Expert opinion. This case is a vivid example of how trust in public figures within the crypto community can be exploited for personal gain. It also demonstrates that U.S. law enforcement agencies are increasingly effective at tracking and stopping such schemes, despite the anonymity supposedly provided by cryptocurrency wallets. For investors, this is yet another reminder: always verify the authenticity of contacts and never send funds to wallets without being 100% certain of the recipient.