I just reviewed this case again, and it’s still incredible. A little over a year ago, a group of young guys carried out what is probably one of the biggest Bitcoin thefts in modern history. Malone Lam, who was just 20 years old, led a team that managed what seemed impossible: gaining access to a Genesis creditor’s account that held thousands of Bitcoins.

The strategy was brutal in its simplicity. First came pure social engineering. Someone posed as Google support, convincing the victim that their accounts were compromised. They accessed Gmail and iCloud without any issues. Then another member of the group posed as Gemini staff, telling the victim that their exchange was under attack. The victim, terrified, did exactly what they wanted: they disabled their two-factor authentication.

With that, they gained access to Gemini. But Malone and his team weren’t satisfied. They pressured the victim into installing AnyDesk. Screen sharing, private keys exposed. The Bitcoin was in their hands.

At 4:05 a.m. on August 19, 2024, 4,064 Bitcoin disappeared. At the time, they were worth around $238 million. Today, with Bitcoin at $80.88K, those same Bitcoins would be valued at approximately $329 million. Nearly triple.

What happened afterward was almost a parody. Malone Lam went completely off the rails with the money. Nights of $500,000 at Miami clubs. Bought a $10.5 million mansion. His garage filled with supercars. Five Birkin bags gifted to random women at parties. Even a pink Lamborghini Urus he tried to use to win back his ex—she rejected him anyway.

The ironic part is that everything was so obvious. The money moved fast across 15 different exchanges, exchanged into LTC, ETH, and XMR to try to hide the trail. But Malone Lam couldn’t keep a low profile. In September 2024, federal agents raided his mansion and took him away in handcuffs.

Now the entire crew is under arrest. Veer Chetal, Jeandiel Serrano, Danish Khan, Chen, and Malone Lam face potential years in federal prison. But here’s what really matters: out of the $230 million stolen, only $9 million has been recovered. The rest remains missing in wallets and exchanges that they will probably never find.

This story is a reminder of how vulnerable even people who are supposedly sophisticated can be in the crypto space. And it also shows how blockchain—supposedly immutable and traceable—can be used to hide millions. Do you think authorities will ever recover the rest of the Bitcoin? Personally, I have my doubts.