WASHINGTON, D.C. — Malone Lam has a plea agreement hearing set for Tuesday, September 9, 2026. The defendant is one of three men charged in connection with a cryptocurrency theft worth over $240 million.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia stated that the alleged cryptocurrency theft and money laundering scheme involving Malone Lam exceeded $260 million. Lam, Veer Chetal, and Jeandiel Serrano are the primary defendants charged in the case, though eighteen defendants have been charged in total. The group met in online gaming forums before executing the scheme.

Lam is an eighth-grade dropout from Singapore who used stolen cryptocurrency to buy a $2 million watch and over 30 cars, including custom Porsches, Lamborghinis, and Ferraris. He spent over $569,000 in one evening at a Los Angeles night club. Lam and his friends spent $4 million at nightclubs in one month.

He also tossed handbags worth tens of thousands of dollars to women in crowds at nightclubs. The scammers purchased fleets of sports cars, flew on private jets, hired security guards, and rented mansions in Miami and the Hamptons.

FBI agents arrested Lam at one of his Miami mansions on September 18, 2024. An off-duty law enforcement officer tipped off Lam that authorities were on their way to arrest him. During his initial court appearance in Miami, U.S. Magistrate Alicia Valle presided over the proceedings. Valle said, "I could only think of Ferris Bueller gone bad." Lam told associates from jail on a recorded call, "We always talked about what it would be like if I were to go down, but never thought it would be this crazy."

Veer Chetal was another central figure in the investigation. The FBI searched Chetal’s apartment in Brunswick, New Jersey, on September 9, 2024. Agents found $37 million in stolen crypto in Chetal’s possession.

Chetal had gifted a Lamborghini to his parents and hid a duffel bag filled with $500,000 in cash in his parents' laundry machine. Masked men abducted Chetal’s parents in Danbury, Connecticut, beat his father with a baseball bat, and bound their hands. The captors intended to use Chetal’s parents as leverage to extort his share of the stolen crypto. Police apprehended the carjackers after witnesses notified them. Chetal agreed to cooperate with the FBI investigation.

Jeandiel Serrano failed to conceal his IP address when creating an account on a cryptocurrency exchange to hold nearly $30 million in stolen crypto. Investigators linked Serrano's IP address to a home in Encino, California, which he was renting for $47,500 a month. FBI agents arrested Serrano at Los Angeles International Airport on September 18, 2024.

Serrano was wearing a $500,000 watch when agents arrested him. He admitted to having roughly $20 million of the stolen crypto.

A prosecutor estimated that sentencing guidelines would recommend a prison term of at least 14 years for Lam upon conviction. Prosecutor William Hart said, "This luxury lifestyle, of which so many young men and women could only dream, was just built on a foundation of fraud," during a sentencing hearing for a money laundering co-defendant. A defendant named Ferro pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy charge.

Ferro used stolen funds to cover Lam’s legal expenses. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly presides over Lam’s case and has sentenced three of Lam’s co-conspirators.

Timeline

On August 18, 2024, Malone Lam organized a "social engineering" attack on a Washington, D.C. resident. On that same day, a Washington, D.C. resident identified as "Victim 7" in court filings received phone calls from individuals claiming to be a Google representative and a Gemini crypto exchange employee. The callers manipulated the victim into providing access to his Google Drive and revealing security codes, allowing Malone Lam to siphon off over 4,100 bitcoin.

What's New

Defendant Malone Lam was scheduled for trial on October 6, 2025, according to a March 7, 2025 minute order. Malone Lam has a plea agreement hearing set for Tuesday, as reported in the article.

Why It Matters

The case involves eighteen defendants and a scheme that allegedly exceeded $260 million. The events described span two years, from 2024 to 2026. The involvement of multiple jurisdictions, including Washington, D.C. Miami, New Jersey, and California, indicates the national scope of the investigation.

The luxurious spending habits of the defendants, including millions spent at nightclubs and on high-end vehicles, contrast with the fraudulent foundation of their wealth. Prosecutors and judges have noted the brazen nature of the crimes, with one magistrate comparing the defendant to a fictional character gone bad. The cooperation of some defendants, such as Veer Chetal, and the guilty pleas of others, such as Ferro, indicate the unraveling of the criminal network through federal investigation.