A 22-year-old Singaporean man has pleaded guilty to leading an international group that stole and laundered more than $245 million in cryptocurrency.
Malone Lam admitted to being involved in a RICO conspiracy. US prosecutors say that the gang used to target crypto holders and scam them, sometimes even by burglarizing them.
How the cryptocurrency conspiracy operated
According to the US Department of Justice, this began around October 2023 and continued until at least May 2025.
They had met through online gaming sites and were based in California, Connecticut, New York, Florida, and numerous other countries around the world.
Lam adopted the online alter egos “$$$”, “Anne Hathaway”, and “King Greavy”, and he was the one who decided on selected victims and assigned different roles to those who participated.
Breaking directly into a wallet was not the group’s focus; they instead focused heavily on social engineering, meaning gaining someone’s trust to get them to share their private details.
In the largest theft ever reported, members masqueraded as representatives of Google and crypto exchange Gemini. They tricked an investor from Washington, D.C., to hand over access to their online accounts as well as their security codes.
More than 4,100 Bitcoin, worth about $245 million, was drained from the wallet of the victim.
Stolen funds financed an extravagant lifestyle
Prosecutors claim members converted the stolen cryptocurrency to cash to fund an extravagant lifestyle.
This spending included private flights, rented homes in Miami and the Hamptons, security guards and expensive clothing. They purchased watches and exotic vehicles worth between $100,000 and $3.8 million.
Nightclub spending sometimes reached $500,000 in one evening. Court reporting has separately linked Lam to a bill of approximately $569,000 during one night in Los Angeles.
Lam was arrested at a Miami apartment he had rented, and his appearance before Judge Kollar-Kotelly in a federal district court began on September 18, 2025. On September 8, 2026, Lam pleaded guilty before federal District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
The judge has set a status hearing for 8 December. Sentence has not been passed for Lam.
Final Summary
- Malone Lam pleaded guilty to a RICO conspiracy that involved stealing and laundering $245 million worth of cryptocurrency.
- The group obtained wallet by impersonating and deceiving then spending the proceeds on cars, properties, and nightlife.
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