Feds Arrest Alleged Crypto Crooks for Stealing $230 Million in Bitcoin

Feds today hit two men with criminal charges for allegedly stealing approximately $230 million in Bitcoin from someone, and then using a crypto mixer to hide the movement of funds.

In the highly complicated scam, two defendants—Malone Lam, 20, of Miami, Florida and Los Angeles, California; and Jeandiel Serrano, 21, of Los Angeles—allegedly gained access to the victim’s account to take 4,100 Bitcoin. They then spent it on luxury cars, watches, and real estate, the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged Thursday.

Pseudonymous crypto sleuth ZachXBT said on Twitter (aka X) that he helped with the investigation leading to the arrest of the two suspects in what he called “a highly sophisticated social engineering attack.”

He alleged in a thread on the social media platform that the two defendants called a creditor of collapsed crypto exchange Genesis pretending to be representatives of Google Support. They then conned the victim into resetting their two-factor authentication credential in order to access the Bitcoin received from Genesis, ZachXBT further alleged.

Genesis was a crypto lender that went bankrupt in 2022. It has since worked out a repayment plan to give back funds to former users.

The men in this case allegedly put the stolen funds through crypto mixers—apps that obfuscate the movement of funds—to cover their tracks, ZachXBT and the DOJ both claimed.

Authorities arrested Lam and Serrano yesterday, the DOJ said. They will appear in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and the Central District of California on Thursday.

Edited by Andrew Hayward