Two men have been arrested for conspiracy to steal and launder over $230 million in cryptocurrency after the FBI was seen raiding a mansion in Miami, Florida.
Malone Lam, 20, and Jeandiel Serrano, 21, were reported to have tried to steal and launder the money from a victim in Washington, D.C, the US Attorney’s office reported.
Lam, a citizen of Singapore who went by the online monikers “Anne Hathaway” and “$$$”, and Serrano, who went by “VersaceGod” and “@SkidStar”, were arrested on September 18 and appeared in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and the Central District of California, respectively, on September 19.
According to the indictment, which was unsealed along with the arrests, Lam, Serrano, and others conspired to carry out cryptocurrency thefts and to launder the stolen cryptocurrency through exchanges and mixing services since at least August 2024.
They laundered the proceeds, including by moving the funds through various mixers and exchanges using “peel chains”, pass-through wallets, and virtual private networks (VPNs) to mask their true identities.
A peel chain is a technique used to launder large amounts of illegally obtained cryptocurrency through a series of small transactions.
In a screen share video shared on X by ZachXBT, a 2d investigator who helped with the arrests, Serrano and his friend Aakaash are seen laundering the funds for him using eXch and Thorswap.
In the screen share, viewers can hear an xQc video being heard in the background as the two men were focused on the laundering.
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6/ Wiz’s friend Light/Dark (Aakaash) helped launder the funds for him using eXch and Thorswap. Similar to Wiz he also leaked his name during screen share.Wiz TC Destination address confirmed in video0xa212d7441fed6db9ab666ba34e8c440c565f4af8 pic.twitter.com/ITjrp1ehtT
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) September 19, 2024
During the screen shares, two of the men working on the laundering leaked their own names, which helped identify the rest of the people involved in the fraudulent activities.
In one instance, on August 18, 2024, Lam, Serrano, and their conspirators contacted a victim in D.C. and, through communications with that victim, fraudulently obtained over 4,100 Bitcoin (worth over $230 million at the time).
Lam and Serrano then allegedly spent the laundered cryptocurrency proceeds on international travel, nightclubs, luxury automobiles, watches, jewelry, designer handbags, and rental homes in Los Angeles and Miami.
A month later, on September 18, the FBI carried out “court-ordered law enforcement activity” at Lam’s mansion in Miami.
“It sounded like flashbang grenades. We saw smoke coming out by the garage,” a witness who identified himself as Ralph told 7News. “When I looked up, I saw the SWAT coming up on the Intracoastal here. I could hear folks screaming or hollering, at least one or two people holler and scream or something.”
Residents in the area also said the actions surrounding the home have oftentimes seemed suspicious, some reporting to have occasionally seen high-end luxury vehicles with paper, temporary tags.
The investigation is still ongoing, and it is not known what will happen to Lam, Serrano or any of the other people involved in the fraud.