22-year-old pleads guilty in alleged $240 million bitcoin heist, one of the largest in US history

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, DC, resident — one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in US history — and then embarking on a wild spending spree with the laundered proceeds.

Malone Lam, an eighth-grade dropout who came to the US from Singapore, faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years after pleading guilty to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly didn’t immediately schedule Lam’s sentencing hearing in Washington.

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.

周二，一名 22 岁的男子承认与朋友合谋，从华盛顿特区的一名居民手中窃取了价值近 2.5 亿美元的比特币——这是美国历史上最大的加密货币盗窃案之一——然后用洗钱所得的赃款疯狂挥霍。

来自新加坡、八年级辍学的马龙·拉姆（Malone Lam）承认犯有联邦敲诈勒索罪，面临最高20年监禁。美国地区法官科琳·科拉尔-科特利（Colleen Kollar-Kotelly）尚未安排拉姆在华盛顿的量刑听证会。

检方称，林某是组织一群年轻人实施一系列加密货币诈骗的团伙头目，这些诈骗活动始于2023年。他是本案18名被告之一，也是第11名认罪的被告，但他的定罪标志着司法部调查取得重大突破。

2024年8月，林某等人利用“社会工程学”手段，骗取了一名华盛顿州男子价值超过2.45亿美元的比特币。据检方称，林某的两名同谋冒充谷歌和Gemini加密货币交易所的代表，诱使该男子授予他们访问其谷歌云端硬盘的权限，并泄露了安全代码，林某利用这些代码窃取了超过4100枚比特币。

据当局称，林某帮助洗钱并将偷来的加密货币兑换成现金，他用这些钱购买了一系列跑车，在迈阿密租了豪宅，并在夜总会挥霍了数百万美元，其中包括在洛杉矶一家夜总会一晚上就消费了 56.9 万美元。

林某的疯狂挥霍持续了一个月，之后联邦调查局特工在迈阿密将其逮捕。起诉书称，一名休班执法人员向林某通风报信，称当局即将逮捕他。

根据起诉书，林在狱中通过录音电话告诉同伙：“我们总是谈论如果我倒台会是什么样子，但从来没想过会这么疯狂。”

据联邦调查局称，林某购买的物品包括一块价值200万美元的手表和30多辆汽车，其中包括定制版保时捷、兰博基尼和法拉利。当林某表示这些车辆大部分是他自己购买的，但并非全部时，法官问他是否记得哪些是他亲自购买的。

“我需要一些时间，”他告诉法官。