What if I told you a Canadian teenager once stole $48 million in crypto in a single day—then kept going, even after getting busted? This AI generated newscast about crypto theft will leave you speechless.

In a digital drama that sounds more like a Netflix thriller than real life, a young man from Hamilton, Ontario, just got sentenced to a year behind U.S. bars after admitting to a high-stakes cryptocurrency crime spree in 2022. He targeted up to 200 victims, swiping north of $1 million Canadian, all while out on bail for a previous crime that’s jaw-dropping in its scale: stealing $48 million in crypto from just one person. That earlier heist, carried out when he was just 17, ranks among the largest thefts in Canadian history.

According to court records, U.S. prosecutors called him a “serial online fraudster”—someone who didn’t just dabble, but dove headfirst into the world of cybercrime. His defense team painted a starkly different picture, describing a vulnerable Ontario youth raised by the internet, seeking validation and connection through online circles. His lawyers called him “a psychologically vulnerable teenager desperate to be seen, accepted and valued” when he pulled off the massive theft, and the Canadian justice system protected his identity because he was a minor at the time.

The big score happened back in 2020, targeting American tech entrepreneur Josh Jones. Instead of a Hollywood-style heist, the method was pure digital cunning: the teen pulled off what’s known as a SIM swap. By tricking Jones’s cellphone provider into switching his phone number to a new SIM, the teen intercepted all of Jones’s texts—including those precious two-factor authentication codes—and reset passwords, unlocking tens of millions in crypto. He then laundered the coins, with most of the stash vanishing into the digital ether. “It goes without saying this is an astonishing theft,” said Crown attorney Fraser McCracken. The FBI and Hamilton police joined forces, and their big break came from a surprisingly low-tech clue: the purchase of the PlayStation Network username “God” for $30,700 in bitcoin, traced back to the loot.

Police raided his family’s home and seized the PlayStation, but the story doesn’t end there. After being arrested and spending a year in custody, he apologized to the court and was released on bail, promising to turn over a new leaf. But behind the scenes, he slipped right back into cybercrime, now with an international twist. Working with others, he targeted popular X (formerly Twitter) accounts, convincing customer support to swap email addresses on high-profile accounts and then using these to scam followers into visiting fake sites and draining their crypto wallets. The group’s schemes ran until July 2022, all while the young man was living alone in his dad’s basement, battling mental health struggles, and reportedly using dangerous drugs he’d encountered in juvenile detention.

His U.S. defense team said this young man is now “painfully aware” of the magnitude of his mistakes, and as part of his sentence, he’s been ordered to pay over $320,000 in restitution and faces imminent deportation back to Canada. It’s a cautionary tale about the dark side of internet fame and the real-world consequences that can follow a digital crime spree. This AI generated newscast about crypto theft proves that sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction.