Two years ago, a wealthy cryptocurrency investor picked up the phone to what he believed was Google support, then Gemini support, walking him through a routine security check. By the time he realized what was happening, more than 4,100 Bitcoin — north of $240 million at the time — had moved out of his account and into a maze of wallets he'd never see again.
This week, the 22-year-old prosecutors say orchestrated it all is expected to stand in a Washington, D.C. courtroom and admit to it.
From Nightclub Tables to a Federal Docket
Malone Lam, an eighth-grade dropout from Singapore, is scheduled for a plea agreement hearing this week in federal court, according to multiple outlets tracking the case. Prosecutors have described him as the suspected ringleader of a network of young men, most in their late teens and early twenties, who used what investigators call "social engineering" — impersonating tech-support and exchange staff — to talk a single victim out of his entire crypto fortune in August 2024.
What happened to the money afterward became almost as notorious as the theft itself. Lam allegedly spent more than $569,000 in a single night at a Los Angeles nightclub, part of a spending spree prosecutors have used to paint a picture of a heist that funded a lifestyle as reckless as the crime.
The First Bitcoin RICO Case
The case carries a legal distinction beyond its dollar figure: it's the first time prosecutors have brought a Bitcoin-related theft under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — a statute built for mob bosses and crime syndicates, not crypto rings. Eighteen defendants have been charged in total, and Lam is set to become the eleventh to plead guilty.
Oh, my God! Bro, bro, I’m going to spaz out!
Malone Lam, in a message cited by prosecutors after the alleged theft
What Comes Next
Under the plea agreement, prosecutors have estimated federal sentencing guidelines could call for at least 14 years in prison. Lam's plea hearing lands as the Justice Department's crypto-crime unit has itself been scaled back, a tension one investigation into the case has described as a department trying to close its highest-profile Bitcoin theft with fewer resources than when the case began.
IF Daily could not independently confirm that the plea had been formally entered at publication time — court records and multiple outlets describe Lam as "set to" or "expected to" plead guilty this week, with the hearing itself still ahead.
