Teen admits to US$245m Bitcoin theft charges, agrees to testify against co-accused including Singaporean Malone Lam
Veer Chetal, 19, was one of three men, along with American Jeandiel Serrano and Lam, charged with stealing 4,100 bitcoins from a victim in Washington, DC, in an elaborate online scam last August.
The trio lived large after the heist, spending millions of dollars on cars, jewellery, rental mansions and nightclub parties, prosecutors say.
A week after the theft, Chetal's parents were assaulted and kidnapped briefly in a failed ransom plot aimed at the teen, whom the attackers believed had a large amount of cryptocurrency, authorities said.
Chetal's criminal case was unsealed on Monday (Jun 16) in federal court in Washington, revealing his guilty pleas in November and his agreement to cooperate with federal authorities investigating the Bitcoin theft.
It also revealed new allegations that he was involved in about 50 similar thefts that raked in another US$3 million between November 2023 and September 2024.
Lam was among 13 people indicted by a federal grand jury in May in an alleged online racketeering conspiracy involving crypto thefts across the US and overseas that netted more than US$260 million, including the US$245 million Bitcoin theft.
Chetal is facing 19 to 24 years in prison, a fine between US$50,000 and US$500,000, and restitution to the victim that has yet to be determined, according federal sentencing guidelines and his plea agreement.
His lawyer, David Weinstein, declined to comment, saying Chetal's case is still pending.
In September last year, US federal agents with a search warrant raided Chetal's apartment in Brunswick, New Jersey, and his parents' home in Danbury, Connecticut in connection with the US$245 million Bitcoin heist.
Authorities said they found more than US$500,000 in cash, expensive jewelry and watches and high-end clothing. Federal agents also said Chetal had US$39 million worth of crypto that he turned over to investigators.
Authorities have alleged Chetal, Lam and Serrano were involved in online 'social engineering' attacks against crypto holders.
Lam is accused of sending victims alerts about unauthorised attempts to access their crypto accounts, while the others would call the victims posing as representatives from well-known companies like Google and Yahoo and gain access to their accounts, authorities said.
Messages seeking comment were left with lawyers for Lam and Serrano on Friday.
A week after the theft, six Florida men were accused of kidnapping Chetal's parents in broad daylight in Danbury.
One of them crashed a car into the parents' Lamborghini, while others pulled up in a van, police said. The attackers forced the couple out of their vehicle, beat them, put them in the van and tied them up, police said.
The plot was foiled, and the attackers were arrested quickly because there were eyewitnesses who immediately called police, and an off-duty Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent happened to be driving by at the time of the kidnapping, authorities said.
Federal agents said a seventh man, who was later arrested in connection with the kidnapping, had previously gotten into a dispute with Chetal that turned physical at a Miami nightclub.
The attack on the couple is part of an increasing trend worldwide in robbers using violence to steal crypto.
Chetal, who was attending Rutgers University in New Jersey at the time of the US$245 million theft and later withdrew, was born in India and came to the US with his family when he was four years old in 2010, according to court documents.
His father was granted a foreign worker's visa, and his wife and children obtained related dependent visas.
Federal authorities have said Chetal could face deportation as a result of the criminal case.
Authorities say Chetal's father lost his job at investment bank Morgan Stanley because of the kidnapping and his son's connection to it.
Chetal was initially released from federal custody on his own recognisance.
But a judge ordered him detained until trial earlier this year after federal prosecutors said they discovered Chetal was involved in another crypto theft worth US$2 million last October that he did not tell them about, after he had begun cooperating with authorities.
LAM'S CHARGES AND SPENDING SPREE
In May, Lam was charged with heading up a 13-member crime ring that allegedly stole hundreds of millions of dollars of cryptocurrency, in addition to charges stemming from the Washington DC crypto heist.
The 20-year-old then pleaded not guilty to the superseding indictment.
Federal prosecutors have alleged that he orchestrated a wider scheme with a dozen other individuals.
The 13 suspects allegedly became friends via online gaming platforms and they developed a scheme that netted them over US$260 million.
They stole the money from crypto wallets, converted the crypto into dollars, and then laundered the money.
Lam was reportedly central to the scheme and is named in the May indictment as one of the gang's two organisers.
Lam had already been charged with stealing 4,100 Bitcoin from a single victim, which at the time of the theft in August 2024 was worth over US$230 million.
He purportedly spent the money on nightclub visits – paying up to half a million dollars per evening – as well as buying at least 28 luxury cars, some of them worth up to US$3.8 million each.
In addition, Lam purchased luxury clothing valued in the tens of thousands of dollars and rented homes in wealthy neighbourhoods in Los Angeles, the Hamptons, and Miami.
Lam was arrested last September, but allegedly continued to run the organisation from behind bars.
He reportedly continued working with members of the crime ring to 'pass and receive directions' while being held in detention, ahead of his trial this autumn.
He even allegedly had the ring's members buy luxury bags and deliver them to his girlfriend in Miami.
The 13 suspects, including Lam, have been charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act.
His lawyer Scott Armstrong previously told CNA that 'Malone Lam looks forward to exercising his right to trial by jury in this case'.
The trial is scheduled to begin in October.
If found guilty, Lam faces more than 20 years in prison, a fine of up to US$250,000, or up to twice his gains from the alleged scams.
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