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Associated Press

A 22-year-old man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to teaming up with friends to steal nearly a quarter-billion dollars in bitcoin from a Washington resident – one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in US history – and then embarking on a wild spending spree with the laundered proceeds.
Malone Lam, an eighth-grade dropout who came to the US from Singapore, faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years after pleading guilty to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly did not immediately schedule Lam’s sentencing hearing in Washington.
Lam was an organiser for a network of young men who carried out a string of cryptocurrency scams starting in 2023, prosecutors said.
He is one of 18 defendants charged in the case and is the 11th to plead guilty, but his conviction marks a breakthrough for the Justice Department’s investigation.
In August 2024, Lam and others used “social engineering” techniques to dupe the Washington man out of bitcoin worth over US$245 million.
Two of Lam’s alleged co-conspirators posed as representatives of Google and the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange to manipulate the man into giving them access to his Google Drive and revealing security codes that allowed Lam to siphon off over 4,100 bitcoin, according to prosecutors.

Lam helped launder and convert stolen cryptocurrency into cash that he used to buy a fleet of sports cars, rent mansions in Miami and spend millions at nightclubs, including US$569,000 in one evening at one Los Angeles club, authorities said.
The spending spree lasted a month before FBI agents arrested Lam in Miami. An off-duty law enforcement officer had tipped off Lam that authorities were on their way to arrest him, the indictment says.
“We always talked about what it would be like if I were to go down, but never thought it would be this crazy,” Lam told associates from jail on a recorded call, according to his indictment.
Lam’s purchases included a US$2 million watch and over 30 cars, including custom Porsches, Lamborghinis and Ferraris, according to the FBI.
When Lam indicated that he bought most but not all of those vehicles himself, the judge asked him if he remembers which ones he personally bought.
“I would need some time,” he told the judge.


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Singapore man Malone Lam pleads guilty after massive US bitcoin heist and spending spree

A photo of Malone Lam in a Miami nightclub was included in this US Justice Department court filing in the case against Hamza Doost and Kunal Mehta, photographed on Friday. Photo: AP

The US Justice Department grand jury superseding indictment against Malone Lam and his co-defendants is photographed on Friday. Photo: AP

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The 22-year-old helped launder the stolen funds, then used the money to buy sports cars, rent mansions and spend millions at nightclubs


The 22-year-old helped launder the stolen funds, then used the money to buy sports cars, rent mansions and spend millions at nightclubs.


Singapore man Malone Lam pleads guilty after massive US bitcoin heist and spending spree

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The 22-year-old helped launder the stolen funds, then used the money to buy sports cars, rent mansions and spend millions at nightclubs

The 22-year-old helped launder the stolen funds, then used the money to buy sports cars, rent mansions and spend millions at nightclubs