A 25-year-old London man has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for his involvement in a SIM-swap fraud scheme that defrauded four victims of £200,000 in cryptocurrency in November 2021.
Ajay Shinjin, also known as AJ Marley Cruz, pleaded guilty on 28 September to conspiracy to commit fraud and transferring criminal property. He personally received more than £44,000 from the proceeds of crime, which he spent on vacations to Dubai, an expensive apartment, and gold-plated dental grills.
How the Scheme Operated
The fraud began in early November 2021 when telecommunications company BT detected unauthorized activity on its network. Criminals were transferring customer phone numbers onto SIM cards under their control, a practice known as SIM swapping. Once they controlled a victim's phone number, the fraudsters could receive one-time passcodes by text message and use them to access bank accounts and crypto wallets.
BT identified the devices receiving the transferred numbers by analyzing eSIM-enabled devices and their IMEI serial codes. Data from the investigation led police to identify Shinjin as being associated with four of the devices used in the fraud.
The Victims and Theft Timeline
All four victims reported their losses in the first week of November 2021. On November 2, one victim lost approximately £40,000 in crypto, with roughly £27,000 of it reaching Shinjin's personal crypto account. A second victim lost around £17,000 between November 5 and 7, with all funds landing in the defendant's wallet. These two sums comprised the £44,000 he received.
In the other two cases, Shinjin assisted in carrying out the thefts while the money went elsewhere. Approximately £8,000 was stolen from a third victim's Coinbase account on November 3, and another £130,000 was taken from a fourth victim on November 6 and 7.
Arrest and Legal Proceedings
Shinjin was arrested in October 2023 at Heathrow Airport upon returning from Dubai. He was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and one count of transferring criminal property.
Detective Constable Simon Ardeman of the City of London Police described the case as a complex and calculated fraud that caused significant financial harm to a number of victims. He characterized SIM-swap fraud as a sophisticated and increasingly concerning form of offending, adding that the conviction sends a message that those using technology to commit fraud will face justice.
