Malone Lam Plea Hearing Sept 8 Bitcoin Theft

Malone Lam, a 22-year-old Singaporean national, is scheduled to appear in federal court in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, for a plea agreement hearing. Prosecutors accuse Lam of being a ringleader in a sophisticated social engineering scheme that defrauded a single investor of more than 4,100 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $245 million at the time of the theft. The core of the alleged crime occurred on August 18, 2024, when attackers posing as representatives from Google and the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini contacted a Washington investor identified in court filings as Victim 7. According to prosecutors, the callers convinced the victim to install remote desktop software and surrender security codes, thereby gaining control of his digital assets. The stolen cryptocurrency was then rapidly dispersed across various exchange platforms and privacy networks, including Monero. Federal prosecutors have charged Lam and 17 codefendants under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, marking the statute's first federal application against an organization dedicated to Bitcoin theft.