They pulled off one of the biggest cryptocurrency heists in US history, defrauding a stranger of over $240 million worth of bitcoins. They tried to hide their digital footprints by implementing a sophisticated scheme to launder the proceeds.
And then the party started.
The fraudsters – a network of young men in their late teens or early 20s – celebrated the theft in August 2024 by going on an extravagant spending spree. They purchased fleets of sports cars, flew private jets, hired security guards and rented mansions in Miami and the Hamptons. The alleged fraudster, 22-year-old Malone Lam, spent more than $569,000 in one night at a Los Angeles nightclub.
Their bender lasted a month before FBI agents arrested Lam on charges he orchestrated a “social engineering” attack on the Washington, D.C., resident. Lam, a Singapore eighth grade dropout, has a plea deal hearing scheduled for Tuesday. His conviction will be the capstone for the government’s investigation.
The charges against Lam and 17 others are an extreme example of an increasingly common form of cybercrime. Cryptocurrency investment fraud complaints to the FBI rose nearly 50% in 2025 as Republican President Donald Trump’s administration largely backed off from a regulatory crackdown on the volatile industry.
Last year, the Department of Justice disbanded a division dedicated to prosecuting crypto-related crimes. Meanwhile, crypto companies that complained of unfair treatment during the presidency of Democrat President Joe Biden are cheering the government’s even-handed approach under Trump, which has taken an estimated $1.2 billion from its crypto business in 2025.
Cybersecurity researcher Alison Nixon, who has spent years tracking The Com, an underground subculture of young hackers united by the “insane amount of money” crypto scams can generate, is advocating for more law enforcement resources to go after them.
“If we don’t seriously increase the resources to take these people down and do it faster, then it’s going to spread more and more,” she said.
Fraudsters made off with millions in ‘social engineering’ heist.
A man identified as “Victim 7” in court documents was at his home in Washington on August 18, 2024, when his phone rang. The first caller identified himself as a Google representative asking about attempts to break into his account. A second, claiming to be from the Gemini crypto exchange, alerted the man to a malware attack affecting his crypto wallet.
The callers manipulated the man into giving them access to his Google Drive and revealing security codes that allowed Lam to siphon off more than 4,100 bitcoins, according to prosecutors. They said Lam and his friends on the calls — Veer Chetal and Jeandiel Serrano — targeted the man because he was a wealthy, longtime crypto investor.
A private recording captured the moment the friends realized how much money they had just stolen, according to a video posted by a prominent cryptocurrency private investigator who uses ZachXBT.
“Oh my God! Bro, bro, I’m going to spit!” said a voice on the video.
After seizing the man’s savings, they used money launderers to launder it through multiple exchange platforms and convert virtual currency into government-issued money.
This wasn’t the first social engineering scam for the friends who met on online gaming forums. They have teamed up in other multimillion-dollar heists since late 2023 using a similar game, according to prosecutors.
This time, however, one of them made a costly mistake: Serrano failed to hide his IP address when he created an account on a cryptocurrency exchange to hold nearly $30 million in stolen cryptocurrencies, according to prosecutors. Investigators linked the IP address to a home in Encino, California, that Serrano was renting for $47,500 a month.
The heavy spending quickly attracted attention
Serrano was vacationing in the Maldives when investigators identified him as a suspect. Lam was in Los Angeles, where he and friends spent $4 million at nightclubs in one month, authorities said. Chetal gave his parents a Lamborghini and hid a bag full of $500,000 in cash in their laundry room.
Word of their windfall quickly spread in crypto scam circles. A week after the big score, Chetal’s parents were driving in Danbury, Connecticut, when several masked men cut them off, forced them out of their new car, beat Chetal’s father with a baseball bat, shoved the couple into a van and tied their hands.
The Miami kidnappers intended to use Chetal’s parents as leverage to blackmail him into giving up his share of the stolen crypto. But the ransom plot falls apart when witnesses alert the police, who apprehend the thieves.
The FBI showed up to search Chetal’s apartment in Brunswick, New Jersey on September 9, 2024 and found $37 million in stolen crypto in his possession. He agreed to cooperate with their investigation.
Lam also drew attention for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a night at clubs and throwing purses worth tens of thousands of dollars to women in the crowds. He also used stolen cryptocurrency to buy a $2 million watch and over 30 cars, including custom Porsches, Lamborghinis and Ferraris, according to the FBI.
“This luxurious lifestyle that so many young men and women could only dream of was simply built on a foundation of fraud,” prosecutor William Hart said during a recent sentencing hearing for a co-defendant for money laundering.
“Ferris Bueller Broke Down”
Serrano was wearing a $500,000 watch when FBI agents arrested him at Los Angeles International Airport on Sept. 18, 2024. He initially pleaded not guilty, but soon admitted to owning approximately $20 million of the D.C. man’s stolen cryptocurrency, prosecutors said.
Lamm was arrested at one of his Miami mansions on the same day as Serrano. An off-duty law enforcement officer told Lam that authorities were about to arrest him, the indictment said.
“We always talked about what it would be like if he fell, but we never thought it would be this crazy,” Lam told prison associates in a recorded conversation, according to his indictment.
The judge at Lam’s first court appearance in Miami sounded stunned by the prosecutor’s summary of his lavish spending.
“I just thought Ferris Bueller had gone bad,” said U.S. Magistrate Alicia Valle, referring to the truant character from the 1986 film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
Lahm’s capture did not stop the waste. Ferro, who pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges last year, used stolen funds to cover Lam’s legal costs.
Last Judgment
Eighteen defendants have been charged. Lam will be the 11th to plead guilty. At Lam’s first court appearance, a prosecutor ruled that his sentencing guidelines would recommend a prison term of at least 14 years after conviction.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kolar-Kotelly, who is presiding over Lam’s case, has already sentenced three of his co-conspirators. She sentenced two money launderers to about six years in prison.
Chetal pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in November 2024 and awaits sentencing. Serrano’s charges remain pending.
Tucker Desmond, who pleaded guilty to destroying evidence of other conspirators’ crimes, was sentenced to probation. Desmond apologized at his sentencing hearing in March, saying he was “obsessed with the image of success instead of actually becoming a hard-working individual.”
Ferro declined to speak in court during a sentencing hearing in May. His lawyer, Kevin Wilson, described the co-accused as naughty “young kids”, but the judge did not accept that as an excuse.
“Being young only goes so far,” Kolar-Kotelly said.
Connected: Cryptocurrency Seizure: How Law Enforcement Tracks and Recovers Bitcoin Payments?
