Crypto Scammers' Wild Spending Spree Ends with Arrests

A group of young men in their late teens and early twenties pulled off one of the largest cryptocurrency heists in U.S. history, stealing over $240 million from a Washington D.C. resident.

The scammers used social engineering tactics to target the victim, who was contacted by multiple individuals claiming to be from Google and Gemini, convincing him to reveal his security codes and allowing them to siphon off 4,100 Bitcoin.

Prosecutors say the group, led by Malone Lam, a 22-year-old eighth-grade dropout from Singapore, had previously teamed up on multimillion-dollar thefts since late 2023 using the same playbook.

The scammers spent lavishly, purchasing fleets of sports cars, flying on private jets, and renting mansions in Miami and the Hamptons. Lam reportedly spent over $569,000 in one evening at a Los Angeles nightclub, while another co-defendant rented a home in Encino, California for $47,500 a month.

The lavish spending eventually drew attention to their windfall, with masked men attempting to extort Chetal's parents in Danbury, Connecticut. The FBI later found over $37 million in stolen crypto at Chetal's apartment in Brunswick, New Jersey.