$230M Bitcoin Heist ; Duo arrested!

[Ziskinberg]

This is how the investigators were able to trace the suspects through their transactions and links.





important information about the news...

What Happened: Malone Lam and Jeandiel Serrano were taken into custody on Wednesday night, according to a press release by the U.S. Department of Justice. The duo is accused of attempting to launder thousands of pilfered Bitcoins via mixing services.

They were slated to appear in separate federal courts in California and Florida on Thursday, the Justice Department said in a statement.

The authorities unearthed a sophisticated plan wherein the alleged thieves would drain cryptocurrencies out of victims’ accounts and then launder the proceeds through various mixers and exchanges using "peel chains," pass-through wallets, and virtual private networks to conceal their identities.

The laundered funds were subsequently spent on extravagances such as international travel, nightclubs, pricey accessories, and luxury automobiles.

In the current case, the culprits robbed off 4,100 Bitcoin, worth $230 million, from a victim in Washington, D.C., last month.

and these are the amounts that only recovered;

ZachXBT added that over $9 million of the stolen assets have been frozen, and more than $500,000 have been returned to the victim.

Your thoughts on this....

read more.

FBI Arrests 2 People Allegedly Behind $230M Bitcoin Heist: Laundered Proceeds Were Spent On Globetrotting, High-End Wheels, And Designer Handbags

[franky1]

from a victim in Washington, D.C., last month.[/b][/i]

so stolen 4k coin last month, and their already arrested

hmm guess the victim was well connected(and well funded) to get the FBI to act so quickly and actually apprehend them

[pinggoki]

so stolen 4k coin last month, and their already arrested

hmm guess the victim was well connected(and well funded) to get the FBI to act so quickly and actually apprehend them

That could be a possibility and I think that I can totally agree with you on this one, highly unlikely that they're so high alert on this one without strings being pulled or people in the know getting the FBI to work it out but there's also the fact that the hackers/thieves are sloppy with their work on covering their tracks or making sure that they've got no trace of themselves left behind, it's a good news no matter what, thieves getting their just desserts is probably for the best in my opinion, they did the path that will make them criminals and so they shall pay and I do hope that the victim is really well connected as you've said so they can get the maximum sentence possible.

[Darker45]

from a victim in Washington, D.C., last month.[/b][/i]

so stolen 4k coin last month, and their already arrested

hmm guess the victim was well connected(and well funded) to get the FBI to act so quickly and actually apprehend them

Well, to have $243 million in Bitcoin alone means you are filthy rich. That amount doesn't belong to a company or an institution, right? It belongs to a single person. And for somebody to have that much money, he/she must have a lot of rich and powerful friends. And he/she can be very generous in tips. Of course, law enforcers are always quick to respond to the problems of the rich. They're always the priority.

It's not clear how the heist was done though.

[xLays]

 And for somebody to have that much money, he/she must have a lot of rich and powerful friends. And he/she can be very generous in tips. Of course, law enforcers are always quick to respond to the problems of the rich. They're always the priority.

I thought this only happens in the Philippines. Kidding aside, I'm sure the victim still has more bitcoins aside from the 4,000 that were stolen. The remaining bitcoins might be used to get things done. Probably, the FBI received an under the table reward from the victim to make this happen. Or maybe the suspects were just too careless, which is why they were caught easily.

[pooya87]

from a victim in Washington, D.C., last month.[/b][/i]

so stolen 4k coin last month, and their already arrested

hmm guess the victim was well connected(and well funded) to get the FBI to act so quickly and actually apprehend them

Maybe, but this is not the first time the law enforcement catch a crypto criminal this quickly though. And it's always the criminals' mistake for using centralized exchanges and centralized honeypots (eg. mixers, CoinJoins like Wasabi, etc.) and leak their identity.
I think the fastest record is catching that kid who hacked Twitter accounts of a lot of celebrities and posted donation link to receive coins! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Twitter_account_hijacking

[hd49728]

Maybe, but this is not the first time the law enforcement catch a crypto criminal this quickly though. And it's always the criminals' mistake for using centralized exchanges and centralized honeypots (eg. mixers, CoinJoins like Wasabi, etc.) and leak their identity.

I read the article and it does not mention names of mixing services used in by criminals in this case.

The official announcement from DOJ and it does not write any specific mixing service. It's strange compares to previous arrests with which reports have names of mixers in target of DOJ and FBI.

They laundered the proceeds, including by moving the funds through various mixers and exchanges using “peel chains,” pass-through wallets, and virtual private networks (VPNs) to mask their true identities.

[avikz]

Maybe, but this is not the first time the law enforcement catch a crypto criminal this quickly though. And it's always the criminals' mistake for using centralized exchanges and centralized honeypots (eg. mixers, CoinJoins like Wasabi, etc.) and leak their identity.

I read the article and it does not mention names of mixing services used in by criminals in this case.

The official announcement from DOJ and it does not write any specific mixing service. It's strange compares to previous arrests with which reports have names of mixers in target of DOJ and FBI.

They laundered the proceeds, including by moving the funds through various mixers and exchanges using “peel chains,” pass-through wallets, and virtual private networks (VPNs) to mask their true identities.

Well it could be one of those mixing services that are created and operated by FBI! Or it could be the one which has agreed to share data with the enforcement agencies for every big transactions. FBI and other enforcement agencies know this for a fact, that criminals who steal funds from others, will always try to mix their bitcoins to hide the trail. So it's not a surprise that they still allow certain mixing services to run in exchange of data.

The good part is that, the criminals were arrested. Bitcoin should not become a free heaven for criminals like these people. They have NFT markets to play with where they can purchase a stupid looking monkey image for millions of dollars!

[SamReomo]

so stolen 4k coin last month, and their already arrested

hmm guess the victim was well connected(and well funded) to get the FBI to act so quickly and actually apprehend them

4K Bitcoin is a huge amount in today's times and it's around $230M in value and for scammers and hackers that's not a small amount, especially if they belong to poor background. Those people will do all stupid things to withdraw the amount and do partying and other stupid stuff to get attention.

In most cases such scammers get traced because of the centralized exchanges as they mostly withdraw their money through those exchanges, and when law enforcement agencies do investigation then they trace the source of the money. I'm happy that those criminals were arrested for the crime they did.

[pooya87]

Maybe, but this is not the first time the law enforcement catch a crypto criminal this quickly though. And it's always the criminals' mistake for using centralized exchanges and centralized honeypots (eg. mixers, CoinJoins like Wasabi, etc.) and leak their identity.

I read the article and it does not mention names of mixing services used in by criminals in this case.

The official announcement from DOJ and it does not write any specific mixing service. It's strange compares to previous arrests with which reports have names of mixers in target of DOJ and FBI.

They laundered the proceeds, including by moving the funds through various mixers and exchanges using “peel chains,” pass-through wallets, and virtual private networks (VPNs) to mask their true identities.

If my guess is correct and they did indeed use a honeypot mixer, then there is no way they will ever release the name of that honeypot because it would kill it immediately.

But they also mention "exchanges", for all we know it could be Coinbase again since they have been involved in catching criminals in the past as well.

[Ambatman]

Well my thought is What happened to the remaining $200+ Million
There's no way it could be spent within a Month right?  or it wasn't recovered?
This wasn't their first Rodeo that's for sure according to the post
But they had to go bite on more they can Chew.
Though curious how they got access to the Funds, because I believe someone with such amount should know a thing or two about security.

But they also mention "exchanges", for all we know it could be Coinbase again since they have been involved in catching criminals in the past as well.

I Guess the Exchange was Binance.

The theft was first reported by prominent on-chain detective ZachXBT, who, in a joint effort with security firms like CFInvestigators, zeroshadow, and the Binance Security team, helped investigators trace some of the stolen funds

.

[hugeblack]

How could a hacker be so careless about posting his purchases on Instagram or sharing them publicly, especially when we are talking about millions of dollars? He probably has information about who hacked him and gave the FBI the necessary data to quickly arrest them.

[Z-tight]

The news didn't tell us exactly how the attackers were able to steal $230m from the victim, did the victim store this amount of BTC in an online wallet, if they did, then it is crazy, such an amount has to either be in a hardware wallet or in an airgapped wallet. Good thing is that the attackers have been apprehended, so the victim will be able to get some of their money back, they will also have to liquidate properties the scammers have bought with stolen funds, and use it towards refunding the victims.

[Ziskinberg]

from a victim in Washington, D.C., last month.[/b][/i]

so stolen 4k coin last month, and their already arrested

hmm guess the victim was well connected(and well funded) to get the FBI to act so quickly and actually apprehend them

This happened in the US, and their justice system is much faster compared to the Philippines.

It's not clear how the heist was done though.

This  how it happened.

The $230 million Bitcoin heist involved two suspects, Malone Lam and Jeandiel Serrano, who used social engineering techniques to steal over 4,100 Bitcoin from a single victim. This highly sophisticated scheme occurred in August 2024. The scammers impersonated customer support representatives from Google and Gemini, convincing the victim to reset two-factor authentication (2FA) and use screen-sharing software, which allowed them to access private keys and transfer the Bitcoin into their own wallets.

[DaveF]

If you steal a lot of $ the 1st thing you buy is a minivan. This way if the cops come looking and see you driving one they just think 'Nope, can't be them.'

Show up in a supercar wearing a ton of bling, well then you might be guilty.

But seriously, it's mostly due to the amounts and the speed in which they spent it. Had they sat on in for a while and then only moved a bit (couple thousand $) here and there it would have been a lot more difficult to track them.

-Dave

[Maslate]

If you steal a lot of $ the 1st thing you buy is a minivan. This way if the cops come looking and see you driving one they just think 'Nope, can't be them.'

Show up in a supercar wearing a ton of bling, well then you might be guilty.

But seriously, it's mostly due to the amounts and the speed in which they spent it. Had they sat on in for a while and then only moved a bit (couple thousand $) here and there it would have been a lot more difficult to track them.

-Dave

They were smart in getting the money but foolish in how they spent it. They probably didn’t come from an organized group, which made it easy to trace them because of their spending habits. If they bought something that gets traced back to them, and an investigation follows, it will look like unexplained wealth. At that point, authorities will have probable cause to dig deeper into their activities.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

The news didn't tell us exactly how the attackers were able to steal $230m from the victim, did the victim store this amount of BTC in an online wallet, if they did, then it is crazy, such an amount has to either be in a hardware wallet or in an airgapped wallet.

Just as the title of the thread said "Bitcoin Heist", then it's possible the victim may have been monitored over a long period of time, both online and offline to study what coin he/she owns and where those coins stored, before the heist may have been executed successfully through the help of close informant, because this is a Heist that ever could have been possible with the help of one individual or a group of person, as judging from the amount involved, it must have been executed by an organization of hackers.

Good thing is that the attackers have been apprehended, so the victim will be able to get some of their money back, they will also have to liquidate properties the scammers have bought with stolen funds, and use it towards refunding the victims.

Yes, because that's the only means that can be possible in recovering money that may have been spent, since it's literally impossible to recover the exact amount that may have been stolen during the heist, as I agree to the ideas that luxurious assets bought by these criminals to be sold, and money recovered back to the true owner. Whereas, people should be very careful of letting third parties know about the amount of Bitcoin they own, as hackers wouldn't have known he has such Bitcoin if it wasn't made public to people working around him/her.

[nelson4lov]

If you steal a lot of $ the 1st thing you buy is a minivan. This way if the cops come looking and see you driving one they just think 'Nope, can't be them.'

Show up in a supercar wearing a ton of bling, well then you might be guilty.

But seriously, it's mostly due to the amounts and the speed in which they spent it. Had they sat on in for a while and then only moved a bit (couple thousand $) here and there it would have been a lot more difficult to track them.

-Dave

This is what happens when you suddenly find yourself in a lot of money that you didn't work for. It's going to be an "easy comes, easy goes" situation. That's why I wasn't surprised that they were caught that way — with fast cars and clubbing. Back in the day, you need a well carved out plan to rob a bank or reserve and when you do, you go into hiding and possibly change countries, laying low for the longest time. These thieves did the exact opposite of that.

But then, I do have reservations as to why someone with over $200M+ will easily give in to these already known scamming tactics.

[Hamza2424]

This is what happens when you suddenly find yourself in a lot of money that you didn't work for. It's going to be an "easy comes, easy goes" situation. That's why I wasn't surprised that they were caught that way — with fast cars and clubbing. Back in the day, you need a well carved out plan to rob a bank or reserve and when you do, you go into hiding and possibly change countries, laying low for the longest time. These thieves did the exact opposite of that.

But then, I do have reservations as to why someone with over $200M+ will easily give in to these already known scamming tactics.

Haha, seems like you are crafting a plan, what you think can i join? I won't make such an amount of Bitcoin and in the end, we can buy an island to set up a big Mining network and accumulate more Bitcoins, Haha just kidding anyway, scammers are clever, I cant even think of that they stole such mount in a month, like who are these victims are they all newbies. A platform getting compromised sounds as there must of some technical fault but, kin of phishing scams, email threats, and other tactics should be observable, and how an experienced person can be so reckless while dealing with sensitive data.

These days scam news are another trending topic seems like, more adoption is bringing more consequences, which needs the attention of the experienced ones, they should full effort in their own domain to educate people with security concerns while moving into the crypto market investment.

[GxSTxV]

I find it hard to understand how this hackers are very smart, understanding Bitcoin and Blockchain and capable to steal significant amounts from victims that are surely doing their best to stay safe from similar attempts. However, they fail to hide their identity and expose themselves this easy, where the first doing with the money they steal is partying and giving easy ways for the FBI to track them.

I suspected that these people are really aware of how many things works correctly, or the access of Police Departments to their personal data is beyond what we know? Most of us could understand how some things ans steps are trackable, and most of us can think about mixing the coins in a way to not get tracked. But after all, the coins are stolen and it’s also good they are now restored back to the victim.