Lam, originally from Singapore, had been residing in Los Angeles and Miami after overstaying his visa waiver, which allowed him a 90-day tourist visit.
Federal court documents describe it as ‘one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts from a private individual … in the history of the United States’.
According to court records, Lam purchased 31 sports cars, acquired a $2 million watch, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at nightclubs.
Prosecutors allege the crime commenced on August 18 when Lam reportedly stole $230 million in cryptocurrency from a man in Washington, with $100 million still unaccounted for.
Authorities apprehended Lam in Miami after he traveled from Los Angeles on a private jet and discovered he had been renting multiple Miami homes.
At the time of the alleged offense, he used the online aliases Anne Hathaway and $$$.
However, many of his vehicles remain missing, as ‘many of Lam’s vehicles have not been located as of yet, such as his Pagani Huayra that he purchased for $3,800,000,’ disclosed prosecutors.
Although he ‘admitted to purchasing 31 luxury automobiles, 22 of which have yet to be recovered by law enforcement,’ he reportedly ‘also admitted to conducting additional hacks and earning millions from those separate cryptocurrency fraud schemes, which he states have funded his entire lifestyle since arriving in the United States in October 2023.’
The District of Columbia federal court filing also mentioned a potential link to a kidnapping on August 25, although six other men face charges for that crime.
A month following the crypto theft, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia announced that the FBI had arrested two men—Lam and Jeandiel Serrano, 21—on conspiracy and Bitcoin laundering charges.
According to prosecutors, Serrano, who went by VersaceGod and @SkidStar online, sported a $500,000 watch during his arrest in LA.
Lam and his purported accomplice are detained without bail after admitting to the charges.
Documents indicate that, a month prior to their arrests, Serrano, Lam, and other unnamed accomplices targeted a Washington man ‘because they believed he held a significant amount of virtual currency’ after ‘identifying him as a high net-worth investor from the early days of cryptocurrency’.
In August, one of the culprits allegedly triggered an ‘unauthorized Google account access’ notification to the victim, making it appear as if it originated from outside the country.
Subsequently, a member contacted the man, claimed to be from Google’s security team, and inquired about his unauthorized access attempt.
This deceit allowed them to access his Google Drive to obtain his financial information and locate his crypto exchange account.
They then contacted the man again, with Serrano posing as a member of the crypto exchange team from Gemini’s support team, while the group plotted on Discord and Telegram to ‘manipulate the victim into providing private keys to his virtual currency holdings and sufficient computer access for the conspirators to steal his entire savings.’
Unfortunately, they succeeded in convincing the man to download software onto his computer, granting them real-time access to his desktop, prosecutors report.
As Serrano persuaded the man to open private folders containing Bitcoin, the others swiftly stole its contents, which were subsequently divided among the five conspirators.
They deposited $29 million in cryptocurrency on TradeOgre.com while police sought their whereabouts.
“Meanwhile, his co-conspirator Malone Lam was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per night at Los Angeles nightclubs and amassing an impressive collection of custom Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Porsches,” prosecutors stated.
Lam has since requested a ‘speedy trial’.