Police Arrest Two People Related to $243M Crypto Heist Targeting Genesis Creditor

Two people have been arrested following an investigation into a $243 million heist in which the accused thieves allegedly sought to pass thousands of bitcoin through mixing services, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a Thursday statement.

On Aug. 19, a creditor of defunct trading firm Genesis fell victim to a sophisticated social engineering scam after being contacted by a spoofed number that posed as a member of Google support, according to information first reported by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT.

The victim was convinced to reset their Gemini two-factor authentication settings and send funds to a compromised wallet. Transaction tracing analyzed by ZachXBT shows that the $243 million was split across multiple wallets before being sent to more than 15 exchanges.

An unsealed indictment on Thursday identified Malone Lam, 20, a citizen of Singapore who lives in Miami and Los Angeles, and Jeandiel Serrano, 21, of Los Angeles, showing both had been arrested Wednesday night and charged with conspiring to steal and launder the cryptocurrency. They were set to appear in separate federal courts in California and Florida on Thursday, according to the Justice Department.

A cluster of the stolen funds allegedly flowed into luxury goods brokers to purchase cars, watches, jewelry and designer clothes. The culprits were tied to the loot after they accidentally shared an address that has been used to purchase luxury clothing. CFInvestigators, zeroshadow, ZachXBT and Binance Security used this information to freeze more than $9 million, with $500,000 being returned to the victim.

Both Miami and Los Angeles police departments did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

UPDATE (September 19, 2024, 19:44 UTC): Adds confirmation and indictment information from the U.S. Department of Justice.