The oldest trick in the con artist’s handbook, updated for the crypto age: call someone pretending to be from a trusted institution, create enough panic, and walk away with their life savings. In this case, the life savings happened to be more than 4,100 Bitcoin, worth over $240 million at the time of the theft.
Malone Lam, a 22-year-old Singaporean national, is scheduled to appear in a U.S. federal court on September 9, 2026, to enter a guilty plea linked to one of the largest Bitcoin thefts ever prosecuted on American soil.
How the scheme worked
Lam and his associates allegedly impersonated representatives from both Google and the Gemini crypto exchange, contacting a wealthy investor based in Washington, D.C.
The goal was straightforward, even if the execution was elaborate: convince the target that his accounts were compromised, then talk him into handing over security codes and access credentials. Once inside, the group transferred his Bitcoin holdings out of his control entirely.
