WASHINGTON (AP) — 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, D.C., resident — one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in U.S. history — and then embarking on a wild spending spree with the laundered proceeds.
Malone Lam, an eighth-grade dropout who came to the U.S. from Singapore, faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years after pleading guilty to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly didn't immediately schedule Lam's sentencing hearing in Washington.
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Lam was an organizer for a network of young men who carried out a string of crypto scams starting in 2023, prosecutors said. 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.
In August 2024, Lam and others used “social engineering” techniques to dupe the Washington man out of bitcoin worth over $245 million. 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 covert stolen crypto into cash that he used to buy a fleet of sports cars, rent mansions in Miami and spend millions at night clubs, including $569,000 in one evening at one Los Angeles club, authorities said.
The spending spree lasted a month before FBI agents arrested Lam in Miami. An off-duty law enforcement officer had tipped off Lam that authorities were on their way to arrest him, the indictment says.
“We always talked about what it would be like if I were to go down, but never thought it would be this crazy,” Lam told associates from jail on a recorded call, according to his indictment.
Lam's purchases included a $2 million watch and over 30 cars, including custom Porsches, Lamborghinis and Ferraris, according to the FBI. When Lam indicated that he purchased most but not all of those vehicles himself, the judge asked him if he remembers which ones he personally bought.
“I would need some time,” he told the judge.
