Overview
- Lam, 22, entered a guilty plea on Tuesday to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge tied to the August 2024 theft of more than 4,100 bitcoin from a Washington, D.C., investor.
- Prosecutors say callers impersonated Google and Gemini staff to trick the victim into giving remote access and security codes, allowing the group to move the coins through exchanges and privacy tools.
- The FBI arrested defendants beginning in September 2024 after tracing a co-defendant’s unmasked IP address to an Encino rental and following a conspicuous month‑long spending spree.
- Authorities have frozen or recovered about $70 million from the scheme but say a substantially larger sum remains unaccounted for, as funds were layered through exchanges, instant converters and mixers.
- The case is notable for prosecutors’ use of RICO against a Bitcoin theft ring and for highlighting that social engineering and physical attacks on hardware wallets remain a central vulnerability for crypto holders.