US Cryptocurrency Thief Who Stole $200 Mln Found In Russia

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American crypto entrepreneur Kyle Nagy, whom U.S. authorities believe to be the main architect of the SafeMoon project's collapse and accused of fraud, was in Moscow in 2025, wrote Sistema, citing investigative materials. Nagi and his two SafeMoon partners promised investors that the cryptocurrency they created would "safely grow to the moon." But instead, they withdrew the crypto assets and spent investors' money for personal use. SafeMoon had more than 1 million investors, and at its peak the project was valued at more than $5 billion.

In the fall of 2023, U.S. authorities accused SafeMoon's management of a $200 million fraud. They charged Nagi with fraud and money laundering. Two of his partners were arrested. In February 2026, one of them received more than 8 years in prison with confiscation of property, the second pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. Nagi himself could not be apprehended, he is wanted by the FBI.

Nagi was born in Massachusetts, studied at the University of Vermont and worked as a mechanic. The publication's source familiar with SafeMoon's management says Nagi is "definitely not an IT genius" and did not create the cryptocurrency from scratch, but used code he "copied somewhere on the Internet." According to another interlocutor, Nagi withdrew $50 million from the project. American investigators managed to trace only about $5 million: $1.4 million settled in Nagi's own accounts, $2.2 million in his father's accounts, $1.2 million went to buy a villa in Florida, and another $391510 went to buy a McLaren 720S sports car.

Nearly before the SafeMoon arrests, Nagi and his family moved to Dubai, and in September 2023 he received a UAE resident card, where he bought a 607-square-meter villa for about $1.7 million. In Dubai, Nagi met Russian businessman Alexander Kopenkin. According to Sistema, it was Kopenkin who then helped him move to Russia. The American was matched with a 1200-square-meter cottage with a 25-square-foot plot in the elite Greenfield settlement in western Moscow. The rent amounted to 900,000 rubles a month, and the total cost of moving Kopenkin allegedly estimated at 5.5 million rubles.

In the UAE and Russia, two more criminal cases have arisen. In Dubai, the dispute arose around Nagi's villa. While the American was settling down in the Moscow region, Kopenkin sold his villa in the Emirates for $1.8 million. Kopenkin received the money from the deal, after which Nagi filed a fraud complaint with the police. The statement said that Nagi had given Kopenkin a general power of attorney for the villa rental deal, and the latter had sold it and embezzled the money. Kopenkin denies this. His side claims that the villa was collateral for a $3 million loan, which was allegedly linked to Nagi's new crypto project.

In Russia, Nagi also filed a report in August 2024 with police near Moscow, who opened a case of robbery. Police arrested two men, a driver and an interpreter, who met Nagi in Domodedovo and helped after the move. During confrontations, Nagi said that they allegedly demanded to transfer money to Kopenkin for some kind of "golden visa" for foreigners. They showed him a knife and a gun. Nagi allegedly transferred a total of $1.5 million. Another $1 million in cash, according to his version, he handed over to Kopenkin earlier in Dubai. He estimated the total damage at $4.3 million. Nagi's driver and interpreter have been under arrest in the pre-trial detention center for more than a year and a half on charges of robbery. Kopenkin, according to Sistema, is in the UAE, where he is under a travel ban on charges of fraud with the villa and abuse of trust of Nagi. He faces up to five years in prison. He was declared bankrupt in Russia at the end of 2025.

Sam Nagi remains wanted by the FBI. For at least the second half of 2025, Nagi remained in Moscow. He moved out of a mansion near Moscow and his whereabouts are unknown. In July 2025, he and his wife contacted the office of the DNAom laboratory in the west of the capital, and in October, a man with the same phone number and a similar date of birth issued a customer card at the Sudar men's clothing store.

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