WASHINGTON: US authorities have charged Singaporean Malone Lam with heading up a 13-member crime ring that allegedly stole tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of cryptocurrency.
The 20-year-old has already been charged with stealing cryptocurrency value US$230 million from one sufferer in Washington DC.
In a brand new indictment, federal prosecutors alleged that he orchestrated a wider scheme with a dozen different people.
This included hiding cash inside “squishmallow” stuffed animals and delivery them throughout the US to pay the gang’s members.
Lam appeared on Monday (Might 19) in a court docket in Washington DC, the place he pleaded not responsible to the superseding indictment.
The 13 suspects allegedly turned associates through on-line gaming platforms they usually developed a scheme that netted them a complete of US$263 million.
They stole the cash from cryptocurrency wallets, transformed the crypto into {dollars}, after which laundered the cash.
Malone Lam was reportedly central to the scheme and is called within the indictment as one of many gang’s two organisers.
The US Lawyer’s workplace for the District of Columbia alleged that Lam and 21-year-old Conor Flansburg organised the scheme to determine and goal crypto customers.
