{"id":54757,"date":"2026-09-10T17:24:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/?p=54757"},"modified":"2026-09-10T17:24:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:24:58","slug":"ringleader-in-bitcoin-theft-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/ringleader-in-bitcoin-theft-guilty","title":{"rendered":"Ringleader of $245M Crypto Theft Pleads Guilty\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The man behind one of the biggest bitcoin thefts in history this week pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Malone Lam, 22, a Miami resident from Singapore, on Tuesday admitted his role as ringleader of the international crime group which stole 4,100 bitcoins \u2014 worth over $230 million at the time \u2014 to fund a life of luxury.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. Department of Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-dc\/pr\/singaporean-ringleader-245-million-cryptocurrency-racketeering-enterprise-pleads-guilty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> that from October 2023 and through at least May 2025, Lam and others hacked databases to steal crypto users&#8217; information and con them into providing user logins and private keys. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies worth $245 million were taken in the theft.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On one occasion, a co-defendant broke into a residence in New Mexico and stole a hardware wallet while Lam monitored the victim&#8217;s movements by hacking their iCloud account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;This defendant led an international network that preyed on victims through deception, invaded their privacy, and stole hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency,&#8221; U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said in a statement.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;If you build a cybercrime empire, we will find you, dismantle your operation, and hold you accountable,&#8221; Attorney Pirro added.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The DOJ said: &#8220;The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act conspiracy used social engineering and occasional home break-ins to obtain information that allowed the conspirators to drain their victims&#8217; cryptocurrency wallets.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The crimes started after a group of online gamers became friends before working together to commit the cybercrimes, the indictment read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lam and co-defendants laundered the stolen bitcoin and spent it on bottle service parties, private jet rentals, security guards, luxury handbags and watches, and properties in Los Angeles, the Hamptons, and Miami.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The defendants would spend up to $500,000 a night on parties and give away designer handbags worth tens of thousands of dollars, Tuesday&#8217;s announcement read.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lam was <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/22-year-old-pleads-guilty-in-crypto-theft\">arrested<\/a> in 2024 at his rental home in Miami.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 22-year-old criminal ringleader led one of the biggest bitcoin heists in U.S. history. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3860,"featured_media":54758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4378],"tags":[76,1619,6746,3352],"class_list":["post-54757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-bitcoin","tag-crime","tag-malone-lam","tag-theft"],"author_data":{"id":3860,"name":"Mathew Di Salvo","nicename":"mathewdisalvo","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cropped-Mathew-Di-Salvo-scaled-1.jpeg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Pics-1-5.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3860"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54759,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54757\/revisions\/54759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}