Romance-turned-investment cryptocurrency scam of $5.4M broken up

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(The Center Square) – Authorities recovered $5.4 million in a romance-turned-investment cryptocurrency scam affecting victims in Florida and Massachusetts, says Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.

The Office of Statewide Prosecution’s Cyber Fraud Enforcement Unit was able to recover all of the stolen funds, $700,000 of which will be returned to victims in Florida while $1.3 million will be returned to Massachusetts victims.

Uthmeier said some remaining funds were “unable to be returned to victims” and will be used to fund more law enforcement recovery operations.

“Cyber fraud often targets Florida’s seniors, and our office made it a priority to recover as much money as possible from cyber criminals and return it to victims,” said Uthmeier. “In a record-breaking partnership with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, our Cyber Fraud Enforcement Unit is setting the standard for cryptocurrency recovery. We are committed to tracking down these criminals and returning funds to their rightful owners.”

The Florida victims spanned across six different counties.

One of the victims based in Marion County lost more than $450,000 in the scam and didn’t file a police report, figuring the money was gone forever until the Marion County Sheriff’s Office notified him that the money had been recovered.

“It truly angers me that there are people in this world that have no problem making victims of citizens in our community,” said Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods. “Many times these are senior citizens. Cyber scams and fraud may never go away but, in Marion County and in Florida, we will come after those who choose to do this. My detectives will keep hunting you down and the Attorney General’s office will continue to aggressively prosecute these thieves. Cyber scammers have no place in Florida except behind a cell door.”

The recovered $5.4 million is the largest amount of cryptocurrency retrieved in a single statewide operation, according to Florida's Office of the Attorney General.

Scammers stole over $339 million in cryptocurrency from more than 5,400 Floridians in 2025, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center’s Annual Report.

The CFEU recovered $3.3 million in cryptocurrency during the first fiscal quarter of 2026 and has recovered a total of $7.2 million since it was founded two and a half years ago, according to the Office of the Attorney General. Of those funds recovered, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office assisted in recovering $6.5 million, Uthmeier said.