Malone Lam Bought 31 Cars With Stolen Bitcoin. Now He’s Facing 20 Years
Malone Lam, the 22-year-old Singaporean national accused of orchestrating one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts ever tied to a single victim, pleaded guilty this week to a racketeering conspiracy charge in connection with the theft and laundering of more than $245 million in Bitcoin.
Lam entered his plea on Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, admitting to a single count under the federal RICO statute, a charge more commonly associated with organized crime syndicates than crypto theft rings. Prosecutors say the case marks the Justice Department’s first use of racketeering charges in a Bitcoin-related prosecution.
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The scheme, according to court filings, began no later than October 2023 and continued through at least May 2025. Lam and his associates, many of whom first connected through online gaming platforms, are accused of using social engineering tactics, impersonation and, in at least one instance, a residential break-in to gain access to victims’ cryptocurrency wallets.
The most consequential theft occurred in August 2024, when Lam, Jeandiel Serrano and a third associate identified as Veer Chetal allegedly posed as technical support representatives for Google and the Gemini exchange to trick a wealthy, longtime crypto investor in Washington into handing over access to his Google Drive and security credentials. That access allowed the group to drain more than 4,100 Bitcoin from the victim’s holdings in a single afternoon, a haul worth roughly $230 million at the time and valued at over $245 million as prosecutors tallied it for court.
A recording of the moment the group realized the scale of what they had taken later surfaced online, reportedly posted by a cryptocurrency investigator who goes by the handle ZachXBT. In it, one voice can be heard reacting with disbelief at the size of the theft, shouting “Oh, my God! Bro, bro, I’m going to spaz out!” Prosecutors say the money was quickly funneled through money-laundering specialists and multiple exchange platforms to convert it into cash, a process that left a trail investigators later exploited.
What followed was a month-long spending spree that prosecutors have described in granular detail. Lam and his associates are accused of acquiring more than 30 luxury vehicles, including customized Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Porsches, with some cars priced as high as $3.8 million apiece.
They rented mansions in Miami, Los Angeles and the Hamptons, chartered private jets, hired security details and spent freely on high-end jewelry and watches, including a timepiece valued at roughly $2 million. Nightclub bills reportedly reached $500,000 in a single evening at a Los Angeles venue. Investigators say the group also bought designer handbags, including Hermès Birkin bags, some of which were tossed into crowds during outings.
The unraveling began not with the theft itself but with a basic operational security lapse. Serrano, 21, had been holding between $27 million and $30 million of the stolen funds, and investigators say he failed to use a VPN when accessing a cryptocurrency wallet tied to that share of the money. That oversight allowed federal agents to trace an IP address back to a high-end rental property in Encino, California, that Serrano had been using, reportedly at a cost of roughly $47,500 a month. The group’s haste to convert stolen crypto into spendable cash through a series of exchange platforms compounded the exposure, leaving additional trails for the FBI and IRS to follow.
Serrano was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on September 18, 2024, reportedly wearing a $500,000 watch at the time. He initially denied wrongdoing but later admitted to holding roughly $20 million in stolen crypto and agreed to transfer a portion of it back to federal authorities.
Lam was arrested that same day at a rental mansion on the Miami waterfront. According to the indictment, an off-duty law enforcement officer had tipped Lam off that federal agents were closing in, giving him time to attempt to destroy evidence. In the scramble, Lam reportedly threw his phone into Biscayne Bay, though investigators later recovered the device. From jail, Lam was recorded telling associates the situation felt far more serious than he had ever imagined it could become.
Court documents identify Lam as the ringleader who selected targets and assigned roles within the network, operating under online aliases including “Anne Hathaway” and “King Greavy.” In total, 18 people have been charged in connection with the broader conspiracy, which spanned California, Connecticut, New York, Florida and several countries outside the United States.
Lam’s guilty plea is the eleventh secured in the case so far. Among the earlier convictions, co-conspirator Evan Tangeman was sentenced to 70 months in prison this past April for laundering money tied to the scheme, and at least two other participants identified as money launderers have each received six-year sentences.
Lam, described in court filings as a secondary school dropout, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Judge Kollar-Kotelly accepted his plea but has not yet scheduled sentencing, with a status hearing set for December 8. The court has also ordered restitution of approximately $245 million, though given how much of the stolen money was spent on depreciating assets and short-lived luxury experiences, prosecutors and outside observers alike have raised doubts about how much of that sum victims will ever actually recover.
In a statement following the plea, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Lam had led a network that preyed on victims through deception and stole hundreds of millions of dollars in digital assets. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, with investigative support from FBI field offices in Washington and Los Angeles.
Authorities have described the theft as among the largest cryptocurrency heists on record involving a single victim, and one that underscores how vulnerable even sophisticated crypto holders remain to old-fashioned social engineering rather than any flaw in blockchain technology itself.
