A Palm Coast man has been sentenced to a decade in federal prison for his role in a nationwide cryptocurrency hacking scheme that defrauded victims out of millions of dollars.
Senior U.S. District Judge Harvey E. Schlesinger sentenced 20-year-old Noah Michael Urban, who went by aliases including “King Bob,” “Sosa,” “Elijah,” and “Gustavo Fring,” to 10 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Urban was also ordered to forfeit $4.8 million in assets — including cryptocurrency and other property — and to pay $13 million in restitution. He pleaded guilty in April.
According to court records, Urban and others carried out targeted cyberattacks between August 2022 and March 2023. Their tactics included “SIM swapping,” in which hackers gain control of a victim’s phone number to access personal data and cryptocurrency accounts. Urban used stolen personal information to hack into digital wallets, ultimately stealing cryptocurrency from at least 59 victims across the country.
Prosecutors said Urban’s group also targeted company employees with phishing text messages to steal login credentials. Using that access, they obtained non-public corporate data and leveraged it — along with leaked datasets — to break into additional cryptocurrency accounts and steal millions more.
The FBI searched Urban’s residence and discovered evidence linking him to victims’ accounts, as well as $4.8 million in stolen cryptocurrency stored on his devices. In total, investigators determined the group caused losses exceeding $13 million.
The case was investigated by the FBI. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cannizzaro of the Middle District of Florida and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Restrepo of the Central District of California.
