WASHINGTON — Malone Lam, a 22-year-old Singaporean national, is set to enter a guilty plea this week for organizing one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in U.S. history. Lam defrauded a single victim of over $240 million in Bitcoin through an elaborate social engineering scheme.
The August 2024 theft involved a network of young men, primarily in their late teens or early 20s, posing as Google and Gemini support staff to trick the victim into transferring his Bitcoin holdings.
After the heist, Lam and his co-defendants went on a month-long spending spree that left a clear trail of evidence. They bought fleets of sports cars, chartered private jets, hired personal security and rented luxury mansions in Miami and the Hamptons. Court filings show Lam alone spent $569,000 in a single night at a Los Angeles nightclub.
FBI agents arrested Lam on charges of organizing the theft and laundering the proceeds. The Justice Department pursued the case through a grand jury superseding indictment against Lam, Hamza Doost, and Kunal Mehta.
Lam's plea hearing is scheduled for Sept. 9, 2026, in U.S. federal court.
