A 22-year-old Singaporean, Malone Lam, has pleaded guilty in the United States to his role in a cryptocurrency theft scheme in which he and his associates stole about $245 million in bitcoin.
Lam, who was accused of organising an international group of associates, admitted to a racketeering conspiracy charge after the group allegedly used deception and stolen personal information to gain access to victims’ cryptocurrency wallets.
According to the BBC, the US Department of Justice said Lam and his associates spent the stolen proceeds lavishly, including as much as $500,000 in a single night at nightclubs.
The group also purchased more than 30 luxury vehicles, with individual cars valued between $100,000 and $3.8 million. The stolen funds were also used to acquire high-end watches, designer clothing, private jet rentals, luxury homes and Hermes Birkin handbags.
The DOJ said the handbags, valued in the tens of thousands of dollars, were sometimes thrown into crowds during nightclub parties.
Lam, who also used the aliases “Anne Hathaway”, “$$$” and “King Greavy”, was described by US authorities as the ringleader who identified victims and coordinated the roles of other members of the criminal enterprise.
According to court documents, the conspirators came from several US states and other countries and met through online gaming platforms.
They allegedly deceived victims into handing over confidential information and, in some cases, carried out home break-ins to obtain details that enabled them to drain cryptocurrency wallets.
Lam told US investigators that he dropped out of secondary school in Singapore at the age of 14. He travelled to the US in October 2023 and remained there after his visa expired in January 2024.
Court documents said the conspiracy began no later than October 2023 and continued until at least May 2025.
Lam and a co-conspirator were arrested in September 2024, bringing the operation to an end.
US Magistrate Judge Alicia Valle previously compared Lam’s lifestyle to “Ferris Bueller gone bad” during his first court appearance, citing his extravagant spending after he gained access to more than $230 million.
The US Department of Justice said Lam faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. No sentencing date had been scheduled as of Tuesday.
Another member of the conspiracy, Evan Tangeman, was sentenced to 70 months in prison in April for laundering proceeds from the scheme.
Source: BBC
