The 22-year-old and his co-conspirators spent stolen cash at nightclubs, sometimes up to $500,000 in one evening, the US Department of Justice said. The group also bought a collection of luxury cars that individually ranged from $100,000 to as much as $3.8 million, investigators said. Now Lam faces a maximum possible prison sentence of 20 years, although US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has not yet set a formal sentencing hearing.
A Complex Scheme Evolved Through Online Gaming Links
"Cybercrime is a crime and we are committed to tracking down and dismantling cybercrime enterprises," said US Attorney Jeanine Pirro. "Anyone who builds a criminal empire in cyberspace will be found and brought to justice. She said Lam operated an international network that defrauded victims, breached their privacy and stole hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.
Lam told US investigators he left secondary school in Singapore aged 14. In October 2023 he went to the United States and stayed in the country after his visa expired in January of the following year. The criminal conspiracy started no later than October 2023 and continued through at least May 2025, court documents show.
The plot involved co-conspirators in California, Connecticut, New York, Florida and outside the United States who communicated through online gaming platforms. Lam was the ringleader, the Justice Department said, and used aliases including Anne Hathaway, $$$ and King Greavy, as well as identifying potential victims and coordinating the responsibilities of each member involved. The group allegedly tricked victims into sharing confidential information, and in some cases, broke into homes to gather the information they needed to access and drain victims' cryptocurrency wallets.
Stolen Cash Spent on Extravagant Living
The stolen cryptocurrency financed a lavish lifestyle, prosecutors said, including the purchase of Hermès Birkin handbags worth tens of thousands of dollars, some of which were tossed into crowds during nightclub parties. Other costs included luxury watches worth up to $500,000, designer clothes costing tens of thousands of dollars, rental properties in Los Angeles, the Hamptons and Miami, private jet travel and a personal security team.
Lam had become a notable figure on the Los Angeles and Miami nightclub scenes for his extravagant spending, his rapid cryptocurrency wealth drawing significant attention, testimony had heard earlier in a Florida district court. His operation fell apart when FBI agents arrested him and a co-conspirator in September 2024.
During Lam's first court appearance, US Magistrate Alicia Valle likened his actions to the plot of the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but with far more dire consequences, referencing the tale of a teenager who skips school for a day of wild adventure. Lam blew through his stolen fortune on nightclubs in Los Angeles and more than 30 luxury vehicles, she said. The scale of his spending and behavior after he obtained more than $230 million was "truly extraordinary," she said.
Another of Lam's co-conspirators, Evan Tangeman, was sentenced to 70 months in prison in April for his role in laundering the proceeds of the scheme. Tangeman also attempted to destroy evidence after Lam's arrest, the Justice Department said, which the court viewed as a sign that he knew he was guilty.
