A 22-year-old man built his fortune by breaking into strangers’ digital wallets, then spent it on nightclub tabs, private jets, and a fleet of cars worth millions.
Malone Lam, a Singapore citizen, pleaded guilty this week in a Washington D.C. federal court to running a racketeering conspiracy that stole and laundered more than $245 million in cryptocurrency.
Lam, who used the aliases “Anne Hathaway,” “$$$,” and “King Greavy,” is belived to have organized the operation, picked out targets, and directed the roles of the other people involved.
According to court documents, the operation began no later than October 2023 and continued through May 2025. It grew out of connections made on online gaming platforms and eventually included people based in California, Connecticut, New York, Florida, and abroad.
The group’s main tool was social engineering. Members tricked victims into handing over the information needed to access their crypto wallets, and in some cases resorted to breaking into victims’ homes to get what they needed.
Members and associates didn’t hold back when it was time to spend stolen cryptocurrency. According to prosecutors, they dropped as much as $500,000 in a single night at nightclubs, handed out luxury handbags worth tens of thousands of dollars at parties, and wore watches priced anywhere from $100,000 to over $500,000.
They also bought designer clothing worth tens of thousands more, rented homes in Los Angeles, the Hamptons, and Miami, chartered private jets, hired a team of private security guards, and built a fleet of exotic cars worth $100,000 to $3.8 million apiece.
Some of the exotic cars purchased with stolen cryptocurrency (Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Lam was arrested on September 18, 2025, at his rental home in Miami.
“If you build a cybercrime empire, we will find you, dismantle your operation, and hold you accountable,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. “This defendant led an international network that preyed on victims through deception, invaded their privacy, and stole hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.