27-year-old Ukrainian citizen Yuriy Nazarenko (also used the aliases Yuriy Nazarenko, Uriel Septimerus, Tor Ford, John Wick) pleaded guilty to creating and administering the website OnlyFake, which sold over 10,000 digital fake documents.
27-year-old Ukrainian citizen Yuriy Nazarenko (also used the aliases Yuriy Nazarenko, Uriel Septimerus, Tor Ford, John Wick) pleaded guilty to creating and administering the website OnlyFake, which sold over 10,000 digital fake documents.
This was reported by the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.
Nazarenko pleaded guilty before federal Judge Margaret M. Garnett to conspiracy to commit identity fraud. The maximum penalty is up to 15 years in prison.
The prosecutor’s office noted that this is one of the first cases of criminal prosecution for the sale of fake digital ID documents.
OnlyFake allowed customers to generate digital driver’s licenses for all 50 US states, US passports and passport cards, Social Security cards, and passports from approximately 56 other countries.
The user could choose how the document would look: as a scan of a «real» document, or as a photo of the document supposedly photographed on a table or other surface.
Payment was accepted in cryptocurrency. The platform also sold packages of up to 1,000 fake documents at once and offered discounts for bulk purchases.
According to the investigation, false documents were used to circumvent KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures at banks and cryptocurrency exchanges.
Many financial institutions allow you to send photos or scans of documents to verify your identity. This is the verification model that OnlyFake exploited, allowing customers to hide their real identity and potentially launder money.
Federal prosecutors have explicitly stated that such schemes undermine mechanisms to combat terrorism, fraud, and financial crimes.
At least 10,000 fake digital documents were created between 2021 and 2024. According to investigators, the service generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. Interestingly, Nazarenko agreed to forfeit $1.2 million in revenue from the platform.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The release states that Nazarenko was extradited to the United States from Romania in September 2025 with the assistance of Romanian authorities and the Office of International Affairs of the US Department of Justice.
The case is being prosecuted by the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The Ukrainian is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26, 2026. If the court imposes the maximum sentence, the Ukrainian faces up to 15 years in federal prison.
