Crypto Scam
This Justice Department court filing in the case against Hamza Doost and Kunal Mehta, that includes a photo of Malone Lam, is photographed Friday, Sept. 4, 2026.
As featured on
A 22-year-old man from Singapore is expected to plead guilty this week in Washington to orchestrating one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in U.S. history, duping a stranger out of bitcoin worth over $240 million. Malone Lam's conviction would be a major milestone in a case that already has led to guilty pleas by several co-conspirators. The scammers who duped a man into turning over the virtual keys to his crypto holdings celebrated the August 2024 heist by embarking on a wild spending spree. The case is an extreme example of an increasingly common form of cybercrime at a time when the Trump administration is relaxing industry regulation.
