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DOJ Hammers $263M Crypto Heist Ring—Tornado Cash Co-Founder in Crosshairs

DOJ Hammers $263M Crypto Heist Ring—Tornado Cash Co-Founder in Crosshairs

Author:
Beincrypto
Published:
2025-05-15 23:51:30
16
1

Federal prosecutors just dropped the gavel on one of crypto’s most brazen money-laundering schemes—and the hammer landed squarely on Tornado Cash’s co-founder. The DOJ alleges the privacy tool became a $263 million getaway car for digital asset thieves.

Privacy tech or criminal tool? The indictment cuts through the crypto-anonymity debate like a chainsaw. Prosecutors claim Tornado Cash didn’t just enable transactions—it actively bypassed sanctions to wash stolen funds.

Meanwhile, Wall Street banks laundering billions get fined less than their quarterly coffee budget. The irony’s thicker than a Bitcoin maximalist’s Twitter thread.

DOJ Takes On Major Crypto Crimes

As part of sweeping pro-crypto regulatory reforms, the US Department of Justice disbanded its crypto Enforcement Unit and reduced the scope of its investigations this year.

However, as today’s indictments clearly show, the DOJ is still interested in taking down high-level crypto crime. The twelve defendants stand accused of many serious offenses:

“[The defendants] allegedly participating in a cyber-enabled racketeering conspiracy throughout the United States and abroad that netted them more than $263 million. [Their] various roles included database hackers, organizers, target identifiers, callers, money launderers, and residential burglars targeting hardware VIRTUAL currency wallets,” the DOJ claimed.

These defendants were allegedly in league with Malone Lam, the group’s ringleader, who was arrested last September. The DOJ claimed that Lam organized the whole crime ring, targeting victims, employing scams, laundering money, and more.

The group’s sophisticated money laundering techniques allowed Lam to allegedly continue benefiting after his arrest.

The bulk of this $263 million came through social engineering and similar scam methods. The group systematically stole and purchased databases of crypto users, identified valuable targets, and attempted to defraud them.

Lam personally scammed $230 million from one victim alone. However, the group soon moved on to much more brute-force methods.

This is Malone Lam.

This 20-year-old committed one of the biggest p2p heists in history

In Aug 2024 he scammed someone for 4,100 $BTC ($385,4M)

I spent ~10 hours researching all the data: the info I found was shocking…

Here is how he did it and how to avoid it🧵👇pic.twitter.com/TfeGYCva9H

— symbiote (@cryptosymbiiote) December 24, 2024

Specifically, the DOJ accused the defendants of much more serious crimes. In an effort to steal hardware wallets, Lam remotely monitored a target’s iCloud metadata while a co-conspirator burglarized his home.

Unfortunately, violent thefts are far from unheard of in this industry: a prominent crypto kidnapping took place in France two days ago.

The indictments named 10 of the 12 co-defendants, claiming that several of them have been arrested. At least two remain anonymous and at large, believed to be living in Dubai.

The DOJ has been demonstrating its resolve on several crypto crimes today. Specifically, it announced that it WOULD indeed be pressing charges against Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash.

Although crypto enforcement has been loosened somewhat, the Department of Justice is still determined to prosecute prominent offenders.

|Square

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