A 27-year-old Ukrainian, Yuriy Nazarenko, has pleaded guilty to operating a website that sold over 10,000 counterfeit identity documents, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Nazarenko managed the platform, named OnlyFake, which provided customers with digital copies of U.S. passports, driver’s licenses, Social Security cards, and other international documents. Clients had the option to choose between a scanned document or a photograph of a ‘real’ document placed on a table.
Payments for these services were made in cryptocurrency, and the site offered discounts for bulk orders. From 2021 to 2024, OnlyFake reportedly generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue and was linked to the creation of at least 10,000 fraudulent documents. These forgeries enabled users to bypass identity verification processes at banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, potentially facilitating money laundering activities.
Nazarenko admitted to conspiracy to commit document fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. He has also agreed to forfeit $1.2 million in proceeds from his operation. Sentencing is scheduled for June 26, 2026.
Yuriy Nazarenko, a Ukrainian national, has confessed to running OnlyFake, a website that sold counterfeit identity documents. He faces a significant prison sentence and has agreed to forfeit millions in illicit earnings.