$230 Million Cryptocurrency Heist: Two Arrested in Miami and Los Angeles
Two individuals have been apprehended this week in connection with a significant cryptocurrency theft amounting to over $230 million. The suspects, 20-year-old Malone Lam and 21-year-old Jeandiel Serrano, were arrested in Miami and Los Angeles, respectively, following a complex investigation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
According to the indictment, Lam and Serrano, along with an accomplice identified as “Wiz,” orchestrated a sophisticated scheme to gain unauthorized access to a victim’s cryptocurrency accounts in Washington, D.C., on August 18, 2024. They successfully transferred over 4,100 Bitcoin, valued at over $230 million at the time, to their own wallets.
The suspects then employed a range of tactics to launder the stolen funds, including the use of cryptocurrency mixers, exchanges, transaction chains, intermediary wallets, and virtual private networks (VPNs). These efforts aimed to obscure their identities and the movement of the stolen assets.
However, their operation began to unravel due to a combination of factors. Their extravagant spending habits and social media activity drew attention, while cybersecurity expert ZachXBT played a pivotal role in identifying “Wiz” and exposing the group’s tactics. ZachXBT’s investigation revealed that the suspects used social engineering techniques, such as spoofing phone numbers and impersonating Google and Gemini employees, to gain access to victims’ accounts.
1/ An investigation into how Greavys (Malone Iam), Wiz (Veer Chetal), and Box (Jeandiel Serrano) stole $243M from a single person last month in a highly sophisticated social engineering attack and my efforts which have helped lead to multiple arrests and millions frozen. pic.twitter.com/dcY1e9xsPd
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) September 19, 2024
Despite attempts to convert a significant portion of the stolen funds into Monero, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency, errors in the laundering process provided investigators with crucial leads. The FBI was able to trace the laundered funds back to the original theft, leading them to Lam and Serrano. Their high-profile purchases of luxury goods and international travel, combined with social media posts from their associates inadvertently revealing their locations, ultimately aided in their apprehension.
The case remains under active investigation, and authorities have not ruled out the possibility of additional arrests.
