Tyler Robert Buchanan, a 24-year-old from Dundee, Scotland, pleaded guilty in a California federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors said he and accomplices stole $8 million in virtual currency from victims across the United States through phishing attacks. He faces up to 22 years in prison at his August 21 sentencing.
Tyler Robert Buchanan appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, where he admitted to the charges announced by the U.S. Department of Justice. The scheme operated from September 2021 to April 2023, targeting victims with phishing text messages disguised as alerts from their companies or suppliers. These messages warned of account deactivation and directed users to fake websites that captured login details for draining cryptocurrency wallets, federal prosecutors explained. At least 45 companies in the United States, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom were hit, according to court documents. The operation netted $8 million in stolen virtual currency from American victims. Buchanan's co-conspirators—Ahmed Hossam Eldin Elbadawy, 24, from College Station, Texas; Evans Onyeaka Osiebo, 21, from Dallas, Texas; and Joel Martin Evans, 26, from Jacksonville, North Carolina—remain charged and at large. Prosecutors highlighted the case amid rising cybercrimes, noting an FBI report from earlier this month that documented nearly $21 billion in U.S. losses to such fraud in 2025.
