Singaporean Pleads Guilty to Masterminding $309 Million Bitcoin Heist

Singaporean Malone Lam has pleaded guilty to orchestrating the theft of $240 million in Bitcoin, one of the largest cryptocurrency heists in US history. Lam, who is now 22 years old, faces up to 20 years in prison for his role in the scheme.

Lam was born on July 19, 2004, and left school at 13 to focus on online gaming communities and cryptocurrency trading. He moved to the US in October 2023, where he lived with a group of friends and began conducting crypto scams.

The group, which included Lam and 14 others, targeted a man in Washington who they convinced to give them access to his Google Drive. They then used social engineering tactics to steal more than 4,100 Bitcoin from the victim's account.

Lam and his associates laundered the stolen assets by converting them into US dollars through wire transfers or bulk cash shipments. The group spent millions of dollars on luxury items, including nightclubs and vehicles, before the FBI caught up with them in September 2024.