Scammer behind $245 million crypto heist pleads guilty to RICO charges

A Singaporean national pleaded guilty to racketeering charges on Tuesday for his role leading a group of scammers who stole more than $245 million in cryptocurrency. 

Malone Lam, 22, will appear in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. on December 8 for more information on sentencing. Participating in a RICO conspiracy charges carry sentences ranging from 7 to 20 years. 

Lam was indicted on scamming charges in September 2024 after drawing law enforcement scrutiny for parlaying stolen crypto into lavish Hamptons vacations, cars and private jets. Prosecutors said Lam, known as “Anne Hathaway,” or “$$$,” ran an operation where he and others would conduct social engineering scams to steal cryptocurrency. 

In several incidents, members called crypto holders pretending to be customer service or representatives from Apple and Google, eventually convincing them to hand over key account details that enabled crypto thefts. 

The group gained access to databases of information about people with large amounts of cryptocurrency and either scammed them into providing access to their funds or broke into their homes to physically steal devices.

Members of the group were previously charged with stealing more than $263 million worth of cryptocurrency from one victim in Washington, D.C.

The group convinced the victim to download a remote desktop program on his computer and used their access to steal account information. Prosecutors said members of the group expressed concern in late 2024 about Lam’s attempts to launder large chunks of the $263 million and public boasting about the theft.

At least nine other people have pleaded guilty as part of the Justice Department take down of the group, known as the Social Engineering Enterprise. Lam’s indictment lists multiple victims, including ones who lost between $600,000 and $14 million.

Several members of the group were arrested throughout 2024 and 2025 in Miami and Dubai including Lam, who was nabbed at his rental home in Miami on September 18, 2025. 

Prosecutors said the Social Engineering Enterprise began around October 2023 when Lam became roommates in Texas with two of the unnamed co-conspirators and began conducting social engineering attacks. 

Lam and the two others conducted social engineering attacks for several months, paying their rent through cybercrime. Through other friendships developed through gaming platforms, multiple people based in California, Connecticut, New York, Florida and other countries joined the effort to create the Social Engineering Enterprise. 

The group split responsibilities between database hackers, target identifiers, people who called potential victims, money launderers and residential burglars who targeted hardware cryptocurrency wallets.