If you happen to have stolen over $200 million in a massive crypto scam, you would probably think lying low is the next thing you should do. Not that stealing is good, but keeping a low profile would be the smart move.
However, that isn’t what 22-year-old Malone Lam did. After he stole a staggering $245 million, he decided the best thing to do was to live the ultimate luxury life. And that involved buying a huge number of exotic cars that he could flaunt.
The story was reported by ABC 7, and it said that the young man lived the ultimate luxury life while leading what was an international cybercrime operation. The Singaporean didn’t do it alone, but he teamed up with friends to commit the rather incredible crime and to amass this huge fortune.
The incident itself took place in August 2024, but it wasn’t until September 2026 that the young man was prosecuted for the incident. Federal officials described it as “one of the largest crypto thefts in US history”. The entire story sounds like something straight out of a Hollywood movie.
How Lam and His Friends Performed the Scam
According to court filings, Lam and a highly organized team of young cybercriminals had targeted a wealthy cryptocurrency investor and used sophisticated social engineering in order to do so. This involved them posing as official representatives from Google and the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange. They falsely claimed that the victim’s Google Drive had been compromised thanks to a hacking attempt.
Lam and his team were then able to trick the victim into handing over security verification codes, allowing them access to the victim’s crypto vaults. They were able to siphon out 4,100 Bitcoin, and at the time of the theft, the value of the coin was a staggering $245 million. That quickly catapulted it to one of the largest crypto scams in American history. With so much money in their accounts, the hackers decided they didn’t want to just sit around on it and hope to get away with their crimes.
Lam decided not to just spend his fortune, but to obliterate it and spend as much of it as possible. He went on a massive spending spree in Miami, buying luxury vehicles, with some of them holding up to $4 million in value. The driveway of his home was soon full of cars from the likes of Ferrari, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini, and Mercedes-Benz. Lam and his friends had bought over 30 luxury cars in the space of just a few months, and the prices for each one ranged from $100,000 to $3.8 million.
Lam Was Eventually Caught by Authorities
Lam also spent $2 million of his stolen bitcoin on a luxury watch, private jets, and 24/7 security personnel. He even rented mansions in Miami to live in. They would drop up to $569,000 every evening on VIP nightclub services. As he hadn’t exactly been subtle with what he had done, the police were eventually able to track him down and charge him. In court, Lam pleaded guilty “to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge,” and faces up to 20 years in federal prison and even deportation.
Part of his plea deal, the U.S. government has seized much of the remnants from his extravagant lifestyle. Lam will forfeit 28 of the exotic luxury cars that were bought. Sadly, given how rapid and volatile the liquidation of Bitcoin is across blockchain wallets, much of what Lam and his team have spent has been lost forever.