Man Who Spent Millions on Rare Pokémon and Magic Cards Found Guilty of Stealing Over $50 Million in Crypto

A 36-year-old cybersecurity consultant and apparent trading card collector from Maryland was just convicted of computer fraud and money laundering in a case involving more than $50 million in stolen cryptocurrency.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that Jonathan Spalletta was convicted of exploiting vulnerabilities in the code of the now-defunct crypto platform Uranium Finance, an exchange that allowed users to trade cryptocurrencies through liquidity pools.

He then used some of the stolen funds to purchase rare Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering cards, as well as ancient Roman coins.

“Spalletta’s crimes cost real people real money – more than $50 million – and caused the collapse of an entire crypto platform,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jamie McDonald said in a press release.

According to the indictment and evidence presented at trial, Spalletta first hacked Uranium Finance on April 8, 2021. At the time, he made a series of deceptive transactions with one of the platform’s smart contracts that allowed him to withdraw more “rewards” than he was authorized to receive. He repeated the transactions until he stole approximately $1.4 million.

“I made a crypto theft worth $1.5 million a few weeks ago… There was a bug in a smart contract, and I exploited it… Crypto is just fake money on the internet anyway,” Spalletta later told someone in writing.

He then extorted Uranium into keeping approximately $386,000 as a “bug bounty” in exchange for returning the remainder of the stolen funds.

Then, on April 28, 2021, Spalletta carried out a second hack. This time, he exploited an error in Uranium’s code regarding the amount of cryptocurrency that could be withdrawn from a liquidity pool. The vulnerability spanned multiple pools and he stole approximately $53.3 million in cryptocurrency, according to the DOJ. The theft ultimately caused Uranium Finance to close due to a lack of funds.

Spalletta then laundered the stolen crypto through a complex series of transactions.

What makes the case even more remarkable is why authorities say he spent some of the money.

For example, Spalletta purchased a “Black Lotus” Magic card for about $500,000, 18 sealed “Alpha Booster” Magic packs for about $1.5 million, a sealed first edition Pokémon booster box for about $257,500, and a complete first edition Pokémon core set for about $750,000.

Beyond the trading cards, he also purchased a piece of fabric from the Wright brothers’ original plane, which was later taken to the moon by Neil Armstrong for around $137,500.

He also spent $601,545 on an “Eid Mar Denarius,” an ancient Roman coin commemorating the assassination of Julius Caesar.

Authorities also seized cryptocurrency worth approximately $31 million from Spalletta in February 2025.

Spalletta was convicted of one count of computer fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, and one count of money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. His sentence will be determined by a judge next year.