US indicts two over $230 million socially engineered crypto heist

HomeNews, Other ContentUS indicts two over $230 million socially engineered crypto heist

Two individuals are in cuffs and facing serious charges in connection with a major cryptocurrency theft worth more than $230 million from a single victim.

Malone Lam, 20, and Jeandiel Serrano, 21, of Miami and Los Angeles, respectively, allegedly ran a scam between August and September, using the stolen funds, which were carelessly laundered, to buy luxury cars, watches, jewelry, international travel, VIP nightclub services, rental houses and designer handbags.

The indictment [PDF], which was unsealed Thursday, does not go into much detail about the criminal incident at the heart of the case, other than to allege that the pair allegedly contacted the victim directly and stole more than 4,100 Bitcoins from them.

The stolen cryptocurrencies were then moved around various exchanges and mixers, with the help of some VPN usage, in an attempt to mask their path to the cyberthieves' wallets.

US indicts two over $230 million socially engineered crypto heist.
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