Singaporean Man Pleads Guilty to Stealing $240 Million in Bitcoin

A young man from Singapore has pleaded guilty to orchestrating one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in U.S. history, stealing nearly $240 million in Bitcoin from a Washington D.C. resident.

Malone Lam, who dropped out of eighth grade, faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to federal racketeering conspiracy charges. He is one of 18 defendants charged in the case and the 11th to plead guilty.

The theft occurred in August 2024 when Lam and his co-conspirators used social engineering techniques to dupe the victim into giving them access to his Google Drive and revealing security codes that allowed them to siphon off over 4,100 Bitcoin.

Lam then laundered the stolen crypto into cash, using it to buy a fleet of sports cars, rent mansions in Miami, and spend millions at nightclubs, including $569,000 in one evening at a Los Angeles club.