Key facts
- Malone Lam, 22, faces a plea hearing in federal court in Washington.
- Prosecutors allege Lam was an organizer of a group that stole over $245 million in Bitcoin.
- The theft involved social engineering tactics, with callers posing as Google and Gemini staff.
- The group also committed home burglaries to steal hardware wallets.
- Ten of the 18 charged individuals have pleaded guilty.
Malone Lam, a 22-year-old Singaporean, is scheduled to appear in federal court in Washington on Tuesday for a plea agreement hearing related to a massive Bitcoin theft. Prosecutors allege Lam was an organizer of a group that defrauded a single investor of over $245 million in Bitcoin.
The scheme involved callers posing as representatives from Google and Gemini, who warned the victim, identified as Victim-7, that his accounts were under attack. They convinced him to install remote desktop software and provide his security codes, which allowed them to transfer more than 4,100 BTC out of his wallets.
The indictment outlines a racketeering group, dubbed the Social Engineering Enterprise, comprising 18 individuals with roles ranging from hackers to money launderers. The group allegedly formed friendships through online gaming and used stolen crypto databases to identify targets. When victims stored coins on hardware wallets, members reportedly traveled to their homes to break in and steal them.
The crew also became targets themselves. In one incident, co-defendant Veer Chetal's parents were attacked and robbed in Danbury, Connecticut, in an apparent extortion attempt related to Chetal's share of the stolen funds. An off-duty FBI agent witnessed the event and intervened.
Prosecutors stated that the stolen money was laundered through Monero cryptocurrency via exchanges that do not require identification, and then moved through peel chains. Cash was allegedly returned in bulk, with some being shipped across the country inside stuffed toys. Lam reportedly spent $4 million at Los Angeles nightclubs within a month and purchased over 30 cars, which were titled to a shell company named Crypto Administration LLC.
Despite Lam being held in a Miami jail, other members of the group relayed messages to and from him, funded his defense with fraud proceeds, and continued to attempt social engineering attacks from Dubai in early 2025, using coded language. Ten of the 18 charged individuals have already pleaded guilty, and Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who dismissed the notion of the group being merely "mischievous young kids," has sentenced three members.