More than a dozen teenagers and young adults allegedly conspired to pull off the largest ever crypto heist before blowing the money on private jets, nightclubs and luxury sports cars.
The Scheme's Origins
The wide-ranging scheme began when Veer Chetal, an immigrant from India, met Malone Lam, a Singaporean national, and Jeandiel Serrano, of California, while playing Minecraft in November 2023, federal prosecutors allege. As the three conversed over the world-building game, they allegedly devised a plan to steal from people with large cryptocurrency wallets by buying stolen data off the dark web or engaging in 'social engineering' to get their victims to inadvertently hand over their personal information.
The crew then dubbed themselves 'SE Enterprises,' and began committing their first thefts in Texas before moving their operations to Los Angeles, where they expanded their ranks and rented an 11,000 square foot house to serve as their home base, the San Francisco Standard reports. Along the way, they also gave themselves handles, with Chetal calling himself 'Swag' and 'Wiz,' while Lam called himself 'Anne Hathaway' and 'King Greavys' and Serrano used 'VersaceGod.'
The $246 Million Heist
As they started recruiting members and honed their operations, the crew would take bigger and bigger scores - before ultimately pulling off a $246 million heist in the summer of 2024, according to federal prosecutors. The crew had set their sights on an early Bitcoin investor, identified in court documents only as RW, who was living in Washington DC.
The scheme began simply, with SE Enterprises sending the victim a phishing email claiming his Google account had been targeted by an unauthorized access attempt. In an effort to then sell their story, prosecutors say Lam posed as a member of Google's security team, warning that unless he verified his account it would be shut down - and the unsuspecting victim obliged.
Once inside the victim's account, the group was able to find his login for the Gemini crypto exchange account - and another member of the crew then called RW again, this time posing as Gemini support staff. While RW was kept on the line, other members of the gang allegedly sent their suggestions about how to extract his private information.
'Trick him into Googling his own pkey, saying it could be leaked somewhere,' Lam suggested, referencing the private key used to access a crypto wallet, according to court documents obtained by the Standard. 'That could be a play,' Chetal responded. But Serrano instead convinced RW to download a program he thought would protect his crypto funds, which actually handed the group remote control of his computer. They were then able to watch as RW accessed his private files and logged into various systems - before they allegedly drained $246 million worth of Bitcoin from his account. It became the single largest private crypto theft in US history.
Lavish Spending Spree
In the aftermath, the crew flaunted their newfound wealth, celebrating their victory at Lam's rented mansion in Miami the very next day and discussing what they would like to buy with the stolen funds, prosecutors allege. Lam then embarked on 'what only can be described as an outrageous and exorbitant spending spree,' as he purchased 30 exotic cars, including McLarens and Pagani, and became 'notorious' for throwing $20,000 Hermes Birkin bags to women at a nightclub, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The group also spent a whopping $4 million in just one night in Los Angeles, and relied on Hamza Doost to organize private jet travel to New York and plan blowout trips to the Hamptons that included 10 luxury sports cars and two mansions. To cover his tracks, prosecutors said Doost incorporated a company based in Wyoming called FlyStopGo LLC, which advertised discreet private jet travel and mansion and car rentals.
Further Crimes and Downfall
Meanwhile, the crew became bolder in their attacks. During one robbery in New Mexico in July 2024, prosecutors say Lam tracked a victim in a wheelchair while crewmember Marlon Ferro broke into the person's home to steal a physical crypto wallet - all while a camera livestreamed from across the street. By the end of that month, they had pulled off a $1.7 million theft followed by another $14 million heist.
But soon, their lives of luxury came crashing down. In September 2024, Doost - who was one of three teens tasked with converting the cryptocurrency into cash and obfuscating where it came from - was robbed of $400,000 in crypto during a cash exchange. At that point, he was also becoming increasingly concerned about the group's leader. 'I genuinely think Malone has a huge chance of getting caught compared to you,' he wrote to another alleged member, according to the Standard. 'Keep your profile the way that you do.' He also recommended deleting Telegram chats and getting a new phone.
Federal prosecutors say Doost was right to be worried, as an off-duty police officer told him federal investigators were closing in on their operation. Chetal was arrested first, on September 9, 2024, in New Jersey, found with $37 million in stolen crypto. He has since pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. Serrano was also taken into custody from Los Angeles International Airport on September 17, returning from the Maldives, at which point his girlfriend allegedly alerted the rest of the group, who began deleting their Telegram accounts.
But the next day, feds came after Lam, who had just flown from Los Angeles to Miami. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering, fraud and money laundering. While he was in custody, prosecutors say, his fellow crew members returned to his house to destroy electronic evidence and collect his designer clothing.
Continued Operations from Behind Bars
Lam allegedly continued to run the scheme from behind bars. 'Y'all have the money. You know how it works, the lawyers care about the money,' he said in a recorded phone call, according to court documents. The court documents then go on to claim that as the group laundered more stolen funds to pay for Lam's defense, they continued stealing, with Chetal helping conduct a $2 million theft from a woman in October 2024.
As recently as January 2025, prosecutors say, the gang members were using coded phone calls to plan schemes. That same month, a federal grand jury handed down a sealed jury indictment of a dozen members of the crew, and by early spring 2025, the FBI began arresting the remaining members. At least 11 members have since pleaded guilty in the wide-ranging scheme, as roughly one-third of the stolen funds remains missing. Lam and Serrano have yet to be convicted.
