Federal prosecutors have filed a civil forfeiture complaint targeting cryptocurrency traced to a fraud that depleted nearly $200,000 from an Ohio man's retirement account.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio, an Eastlake resident transferred funds from his retirement account to a local bank and then to Coinbase after receiving an unsolicited call from someone using the alias "Jake Williams," who claimed to be a trading expert.
The fraudster obtained remote access to the victim's computer and executed approximately 60 transfers between December 2025 and March 2026. During the scheme, the victim was shown a purported cryptocurrency wallet displaying a value of roughly $860,000, including supposed investment gains. When the victim requested to withdraw the funds, the fraudster claimed an IRS freeze prevented the withdrawal, citing that the victim's accountant had not filed taxes since 2021.
Investigators traced $65,028.09 in USDC on the Ethereum blockchain to an address that Circle, the stablecoin issuer, blocklisted following a May 2026 federal warrant. The forfeiture complaint, filed November 9th, 2026, seeks the return of the stablecoin to the victim if the action succeeds.
The FBI Cleveland Division initiated the investigation after the victim reported the loss to the Internet Crime Complaint Center. Additional complaints describing similar fraud schemes attributed to someone named "Jake" have been reported to the FBI through the same channel.
