A 22-year-old man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to teaming up with friends to steal nearly a quarter-billion dollars in bitcoin from a Washington, DC, resident—one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in US. Malone Lam, an eighth-grade dropout who came to the US from Singapore, faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years after pleading guilty to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge. Lam was an organizer for a network of young men who carried out a string of crypto scams starting in 2023, prosecutors said. In August 2024, Lam and others used "social engineering" techniques to dupe the Washington man out of bitcoin worth over $245 million, reports the AP.
Two of Lam's alleged co-conspirators posed as representatives of Google and the Gemini crypto exchange to manipulate the man into giving them access to his Google Drive and revealing security codes that allowed Lam to siphon off over 4,100 bitcoin, according to prosecutors. Lam helped launder and convert stolen crypto into cash that he used to buy more than 30 cars and a $2 million watch; he spent millions at nightclubs, including $569,000 in one evening at a Los Angeles club, authorities said. The spending spree lasted a month before FBI agents arrested Lam in Miami. He is one of 18 defendants charged in the case and is the 11th to plead guilty, but his conviction marks a major breakthrough for the Justice Department's investigation.
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