20-Something Who Flaunted Supercars and Luxury Goods Pleads Guilty in US Court to Stealing $300B Worth of Bitcoin

A man in his 20s from Singapore, who previously flaunted his wealth at nightclubs by giving away tens of millions of won worth of Hermès bags to people around him, has admitted in court to stealing hundreds of billions of won worth of Bitcoin.

According to NBC, BBC, and other outlets on the 9th (local time), the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Malone Lam, a Singaporean national indicted for playing a ringleader role in a $245 million (approx. 328 billion won) cryptocurrency scam, appeared at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on the 8th and pleaded guilty.

This case ranks as one of the largest cryptocurrency heists in U.S. history.

Lam dropped out of middle school in Singapore and moved to the United States in 2023. Although his visa expired shortly after, he continued to stay in the U.S.

He was accused of conspiring with individuals he met on an online gaming platform to deceive a victim living in Washington, D.C., in August 2024, ultimately making off with 4,100 Bitcoins.

Lam and his accomplices divided roles, posing as Google Cloud employees and staff from the U.S. cryptocurrency platform Gemini, and approached the victim by falsely claiming that there had been unauthorized access attempts to their account.

Investigators found that once the victim fell for the scam, the suspects sequentially gained control of Google Cloud, the personal PC, and private keys to the Bitcoin wallet, stealing 4,100 Bitcoins.

Following the theft, they led an ostentatious lifestyle that drew public attention in Los Angeles and Miami, leading to their arrest by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in September 2024, just a month after the crime.

Lam rented a luxury mansion in Miami and purchased more than 30 high-end sports cars, including Lamborghinis and Ferraris.

Inside his Miami home revealed by the FBI were luxury watches worth over $500,000 and high-end clothing items costing tens of thousands of dollars.

He habitually engaged in blatant displays of wealth at nightclubs.

At a nightclub in Los Angeles, he spent $569,000 (approx. 760 million won) in a single night.

After purchasing multiple Hermès Birkin bags, which cost tens of millions of won each, he even threw them out to people at nightclub parties.

Having pleaded guilty in court, Lam faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison following upcoming additional legal proceedings.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Ferris stated, "We will continue to hunt down criminals who weaponize technology to steal money from innocent people," adding, "If you build a cybercrime empire, we will find you, dismantle your organization, and hold you accountable."

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.