Cryptocurrency Theft and Money Laundering Scheme Allegedly Nets Over $230 Million

Washington, D.C. – An indictment unsealed today charges two men, 20-year-old Malone Lam of Miami, Florida, and Los Angeles, California, and 21-year-old Jeandiel Serrano of Los Angeles, California, with conspiring to steal and launder over $230 million in cryptocurrency from a victim in Washington, D.C. Lam, a citizen of Singapore, is known online as "Anne Hathaway" and "$$$", while Serrano uses the online aliases "VersaceGod" and "@SkidStar". Both were arrested last night and appeared in federal court today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California respectively.

The arrests and indictments were announced by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves; David Geist, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Criminal and Cyber Division; and Kareem A. Carter, Executive Special Agent in Charge of IRS-CI’s Washington, D.C. Field Office.

According to the indictment, beginning in August 2024, Lam, Serrano, and others conspired to carry out cryptocurrency theft and launder the stolen cryptocurrency through exchanges and mixers. The conspirators fraudulently gained access to victims’ cryptocurrency accounts and then transferred the victims' funds to their own. They laundered the money, including by using “peel chains,” straight-through wallets, and virtual private networks (VPNs) to move the funds to various mixers and exchanges to conceal their true identities. Lam and Serrano allegedly then spent their laundered cryptocurrency proceeds on international travel, nightclubs, luxury cars, watches, jewelry, designer handbags, and rental properties in Los Angeles and Miami. In one instance, on August 18, 2024, Lam, Serrano, and their co-conspirators contacted a victim in Washington, D.C., and through communication with the victim, fraudulently gained access to over 4,100 Bitcoins (then worth over $230 million).

The ongoing investigation is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the FBI Washington Field Office, and IRS Criminal Investigation Washington, D.C. Field Office. Significant investigative and operational support was provided by the FBI’s Los Angeles and Miami Field Offices.