Crypto Scam
This Justice Department court filing in the case against Hamza Doost and Kunal Mehta, that includes a photo of Malone Lam, is photographed Friday, Sept. 4, 2026.
As featured on
A 22-year-old man from Singapore is expected to plead guilty this week in Washington to orchestrating one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in U.S. history, duping a stranger out of bitcoin worth over $240 million. Malone Lam's conviction would be a major milestone in a case that already has led to guilty pleas by several co-conspirators. The scammers who duped a man into turning over the virtual keys to his crypto holdings celebrated the August 2024 heist by embarking on a wild spending spree. The case is an extreme example of an increasingly common form of cybercrime at a time when the Trump administration is relaxing industry regulation.
A 22-year-old man from Singapore has pleaded guilty to teaming up with friends to steal nearly a quarter-billion dollars in bitcoin from a Washington, D.C., resident and then embarking on a wild spending spree with the laundered proceeds. Malone Lam faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years after pleading guilty on Tuesday to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly didn’t immediately schedule Lam’s sentencing. Prosecutors say Lam was an organizer for a network of young men who carried out a string of crypto scams. In August 2024, Lam and others used “social engineering” techniques to dupe Washington man out of bitcoin worth over $245 million.