A Singaporean man has pleaded guilty in the US for leading a group who stole $245 million (£181m) in cryptocurrency – the bulk of which was stolen from a single individual.
Malone Lam, 22, and the 17 others who have also been charged in the conspiracy met through online gaming forums, and carried out the thefts using social engineering techniques through which they tricked people into divulging access credentials, as well as occasionally carrying out home break-ins to obtain the needed information.
The largest theft, in August 2024, involved more than 4,100 Bitcoin, which the group carried out through telephone calls to the victim’s home impersonating officials from Google and the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange.
Lam spent up to $500,000 per night in nightclubs. Image credit: US Department of Justice
Lavish spending
