The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed an indictment Thursday charging two people with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, relating to the theft of over $230 million in cryptocurrency including Bitcoin.
Miami resident Malone Lam and Los Angeles resident Jeandiel Serrano were arrested by the FBI Wednesday, according to a DOJ news release.
Lam, a Singapore citizen, and Serrano are accused of fraudulently gaining access to victims’ cryptocurrency accounts and appropriating the funds. In one instance, the indictment claims, the pair and unnamed co-conspirators fraudulently obtained over 4,100 Bitcoin, then worth over $230 million, from a victim in Washington, D.C.
Lam, who rejoiced in the online monikers “Anne Hathaway” and “$$$”, and Serrano, who went by “VersaceGod” and “@SkidStar,” are accused of moving the stolen cryptocurrency through coin mixers and exchanges “for the purpose of concealing ownership and disguising the origin and current location of the stolen funds.”
The pair are also accused of using “peel chains” and pass-through wallets for the same purpose, as well as using virtual private networks (VPNs) in order to conceal their own identities.
Coin mixers, fraud and the law
Cryptocurrency mixers have become a focus of attention for regulators and law enforcement in recent months. The services work by using a variety of cryptographic techniques to mask the origin and destination of crypto transactions; the mixers allegedly used by Lam and Serrano have gone unnamed in the DOJ indictment.
While advocates claim that coin mixers have legitimate uses, such as decoupling one’s real-world identity from the public blockchain ledger of transactions for personal privacy reasons, they have also regularly been used by cybercriminals. Mixers such as Tornado Cash and Blender have faced sanctions from the U.S. Treasury Department, while Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm was arrested on charges of facilitating money laundering and sanctions violations.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
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