The arrests and indictments were announced by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Acting Special Agent in Charge David Geist of the FBI’s Washington Field Office’s Criminal and Cyber Section, and Executive Special Agent in Charge Kareem A. Carter of the IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Washington, D.C. Field Office.
According to the indictment, beginning in August 2024, Lam, Serrano, and others conspired to commit cryptocurrency thefts and launder stolen cryptocurrency through exchanges and mixing services. The conspirators would fraudulently gain access to victims’ cryptocurrency accounts and then transfer the victims’ funds to themselves. They laundered the funds, including by using “strip chains,” pass-through wallets, and virtual private networks (VPNs) to mask their true identities by transferring the funds to various mixers and exchanges. Lam and Serrano allegedly then spent the laundered cryptocurrency proceeds on international travel, nightclubs, luxury cars, watches, jewelry, designer handbags, and rental homes in Los Angeles and Miami. In one case, on August 18, 2024, Lam, Serrano, and their co-conspirators contacted a victim in Washington, D.C., and fraudulently obtained more than 4,100 bitcoins (valued at more than $230 million at the time) through communications with that victim.
This ongoing investigation is being led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation’s Washington Field Office. The FBI’s Los Angeles and Miami Field Offices provided significant investigative and operational support.
