A citizen of Singapore living in the United States, along with a co-conspirator, has been charged with orchestrating a crypto scam involving over $230 million. The two individuals, Malone Lam, 20, and Jeandiel Serrano, 21, were arrested by the FBI on Wednesday night and face charges of conspiring to steal and launder crypto.
The charges, announced by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday, relate to the fraudulent acquisition of over 4,100 Bitcoin from a victim based in Washington DC.
Lam, a Singaporean resident of Miami and Los Angeles, goes by the online aliases “Anne Hathaway” and “$$$.” Serrano, from Los Angeles, is known online as “VersaceGod” and “@SkidStar.”
Both appeared in court yesterday to face charges related to crypto theft and money laundering. According to the DOJ, the scam involved gaining unauthorized access to crypto accounts and transferring the stolen funds into their own possession.
How They Pulled It Off
The criminal activity reportedly began in August 2024, with Lam, Serrano, and others executing a series of crypto thefts and laundering the stolen funds through a variety of methods.
The DOJ’s press release revealed that the pair used exchanges, mixing services, peel chains, and virtual private networks (VPNs) to obfuscate their identities and cover their tracks.
A peel chain is a technique used to divide large sums of stolen crypto into smaller transactions, making it difficult for authorities to trace the funds.
After laundering the stolen Bitcoin, Lam and Serrano allegedly spent the proceeds on extravagant purchases, including international travel, luxury cars, high-end watches, jewelry, and designer handbags.
The two also reportedly rented luxury homes in Los Angeles and Miami. The case took an interesting turn when blockchain investigator ZachXBT exposed further details of their scheme on social media platform X, stating that Lam, Serrano, and a third individual named Veer Chetal had conspired to target a creditor of defunct trading firm Genesis.
According to ZachXBT, the scammers used a “sophisticated social engineering” technique to defraud their victim, posing as Google support representatives using a spoofed phone number. The victim was persuaded to reset their two-factor authentication settings and transfer funds to a compromised wallet.
Both Lam and Serrano are currently in custody as the investigation continues. Authorities are working to recover the stolen funds and trace the involvement of other potential conspirators.
