[Indictment accuses two people of $230 million cryptocurrency fraud] Mars Finance News, Washington - The indictment released today accuses 20-year-old Malone Lam of Miami, Florida and Los Angeles, California, and 21-year-old Jeandiel Serrano of Los Angeles, California, of conspiring to steal and launder more than $230 million in cryptocurrency from a victim in Washington, DC. Lam is a Singaporean citizen with online nicknames "Anne Hathaway" and "$$$", while Serrano's online nicknames are "VersaceGod" and "@SkidStar". They were arrested last night and appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California today.
The arrests and indictments were announced by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Acting Special Agent in Charge David Geist of the FBI’s Washington Field Office’s Criminal and Cyber Section, and Executive Special Agent in Charge Kareem A. Carter of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Washington, D.C. Field Office.
According to the indictment, beginning in August 2024, Lam, Serrano, and others conspired to commit cryptocurrency thefts and launder stolen cryptocurrency through exchanges and mixing services. The conspirators would fraudulently gain access to victims’ cryptocurrency accounts and then transfer the victims’ funds to themselves. They laundered the funds, including by using “strip chains,” pass-through wallets, and virtual private networks (VPNs) to mask their true identities by transferring the funds to various mixers and exchanges. Lam and Serrano allegedly then spent the laundered cryptocurrency proceeds on international travel, nightclubs, luxury cars, watches, jewelry, designer handbags, and rental homes in Los Angeles and Miami. In one case, on August 18, 2024, Lam, Serrano, and their co-conspirators contacted a victim in Washington, D.C., and fraudulently obtained more than 4,100 bitcoins (valued at more than $230 million at the time) through communications with that victim.
This ongoing investigation is being led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation’s Washington Field Office. The FBI’s Los Angeles and Miami Field Offices provided significant investigative and operational support.
