Singaporean Citizen Pleads Guilty to $245M Crypto Theft Ring

Malone Lam, a 22-year-old Singaporean citizen living in Miami, pleaded guilty to a RICO conspiracy charge tied to the theft and laundering of more than $245 million in digital assets.

The case is considered one of the largest cryptocurrency theft operations ever prosecuted in the United States, with investigators viewing it as a major milestone in a much larger federal investigation into an international crypto-theft network.

Lam and his associates stole over 4,100 Bitcoin from a Washington, DC victim by impersonating Google and Gemini executives, convincing the victim to hand over access to his Google Drive and security codes, allowing them to move his funds.

The original federal indictment valued the stolen Bitcoin at more than $230 million, but the Justice Department's broader case describes the full enterprise as having stolen and laundered cryptocurrency worth over $245 million.