12人被追加起诉：被指组团盗走逾2.63亿美元加密货币、多人在加州被捕
美国司法部2025年5月15日宣布，一份四项罪名的替代起诉书当天在位于华盛顿特区的美国联邦地区法院解封，追加起诉12人，指其参与一个遍及美国与海外的网络团伙犯罪组织，涉案金额逾2.63亿美元。数名被告本周在加州被捕，另有两人据信身在迪拜。
宣布起诉的是哥伦比亚特区联邦检察官 Jeanine Ferris Pirro、联邦调查局华盛顿外勤办公室刑事与网络司特别探员主管 Sean Ryan 与国税局刑事调查局华盛顿特区外勤办公室执行特别探员主管 Kareem A. Carter。被告面临的罪名包括诈骗团伙共谋、电汇诈骗共谋、洗钱共谋与妨碍司法。这份替代起诉书，是在2024年9月19日对 Malone Lam 提起的原有指控基础上追加的。
起诉书指，该团伙最迟于2023年10月形成、持续至2025年3月，成员多由网络游戏平台上的交情结识。团伙内部分工细密：有人入侵网站与服务器窃取加密货币数据库或在暗网购买数据库，有人整理信息锁定最有价值的目标，有人冒充客服打电话以社交工程手法骗取受害人信任，有人负责把赃款兑换成现金，还有人专程入室盗窃存放虚拟货币的硬件钱包。
起诉书举例指，2024年8月18日，Lam 等人联系上华盛顿特区一名受害人，以欺诈手法取得逾4,100枚比特币，当时价值逾2.3亿美元；2024年7月，Lam 等人还被指从另一名受害人处盗走逾1,400万美元加密货币。起诉书另指，团伙成员 Marlon Ferro 于2024年7月前往新墨西哥州一户人家入室盗走硬件钱包，Lam 则通过登录受害人的 iCloud 账户实时监视其位置。
检方指，团伙把赃款挥霍在奢侈消费上：一晚高达50万美元的夜总会消费、价值数万美元在夜总会派对上送出的名牌手袋、10万至50万美元一只的豪华手表，以及在洛杉矶（Los Angeles）、汉普顿与迈阿密租住豪宅、包租私人飞机、雇私人保安队，并买下至少28辆价格从10万美元到380万美元不等的 exotic 跑车。洗钱手法包括混币器与交易所、「剥离链」、过手钱包与虚拟私人网络；Kunal Mehta 等四人还被指无证经营加密货币兑换现金业务，用假身份证件为团伙租豪宅、以空壳公司名义登记豪车，甚至把成捆现金藏进 Squishmallow 毛绒玩具里邮寄给团伙成员。
被告名单中加州居民占了大半：Santa Ana 的 Marlon Ferro（19岁）、Hayward 的 Hamza Doost（21岁）、Newport Beach 的 Conor Flansburg（21岁）与 Evan Tangeman（21岁）、Irvine 的 Kunal Mehta（45岁）、Laguna Niguel 的 Joel Cortes（21岁）与 Huntington Beach 的 John Tucker Desmond（19岁）。团伙组织者 Lam（20岁）来自新加坡、常驻迈阿密与洛杉矶。起诉书还指，Lam 在2024年9月被捕、审前羁押期间，仍继续向团伙传递指令、收取被盗加密货币，并让成员买下爱马仕铂金包亲手送给他在迈阿密的女友。
本案由哥伦比亚特区联邦检察官办公室、联邦调查局华盛顿外勤办公室与国税局刑事调查局华盛顿特区外勤办公室调查，联邦调查局洛杉矶与迈阿密外勤办公室提供重大支援，助理联邦检察官 Kevin Rosenberg 承办起诉。起诉书中的指控仅为指控，被告在被法庭以排除合理怀疑的标准定罪之前均推定无罪。（来源：美国司法部哥伦比亚特区联邦检察官办公室）
Twelve More Defendants Charged in RICO Conspiracy Tied to More Than $263 Million in Cryptocurrency Thefts
The Justice Department announced on May 15, 2025, that a four-count superseding indictment unsealed that day in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., charges 12 additional people for allegedly participating in a cyber-enabled racketeering conspiracy throughout the United States and abroad that netted them more than $263 million. Several of the defendants were arrested that week in California, while two remain abroad and are believed to be living in Dubai.
The superseding indictment and the arrests were announced by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro for the District of Columbia, FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean Ryan of the Washington Field Office's Criminal and Cyber Division, and Executive Special Agent in Charge Kareem A. Carter of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Washington, D.C., Field Office. The defendants face charges that include RICO conspiracy, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and obstruction of justice. The superseding indictment adds to charges originally brought against Malone Lam on September 19, 2024.
According to the indictment, the enterprise began no later than October 2023 and continued through March 2025, and grew out of friendships developed on online gaming platforms. Its members held different roles: database hackers broke into websites and servers to obtain cryptocurrency databases or bought them on the dark web; organizers and target identifiers collated the information to pick the most valuable targets; callers cold-called victims and used social engineering to convince them their accounts were under cyberattack and that the callers were helping to secure them; money launderers turned the stolen cryptocurrency into bulk cash or wire transfers; and residential burglars targeted hardware virtual currency wallets.
The indictment alleges that on August 18, 2024, Lam and others contacted a victim in Washington, D.C., and through those communications fraudulently obtained more than 4,100 Bitcoin, worth more than $230 million at the time. In July 2024, Lam and others are also accused of stealing more than $14 million in cryptocurrency from an additional victim. The indictment further alleges that Marlon Ferro traveled to New Mexico in July 2024 and broke into a victim's home to steal a hardware wallet while Lam monitored the victim's location by logging into his iCloud account.
Prosecutors say the stolen proceeds bought nightclub services costing up to $500,000 an evening, luxury handbags valued in the tens of thousands of dollars that were given away at nightclub parties, luxury watches valued between $100,000 and $500,000, rental homes in Los Angeles, the Hamptons, and Miami, private jet rentals, a team of private security guards, and a fleet of at least 28 exotic cars ranging in value from $100,000 to $3.8 million. The laundering allegedly moved funds through mixers and exchanges using peel chains, pass-through wallets, and virtual private networks. Kunal Mehta, Hamza Doost, Joel Cortez, and Evan Tangeman are alleged to have run unlicensed crypto-to-cash conversion services for the enterprise, rented luxury homes for its members using fake identity documents, booked private jet travel with stolen cryptocurrency, registered exotic cars in shell company names, and shipped bulk cash to members hidden inside Squishmallow stuffed animals.
Many of the defendants are California residents: Marlon Ferro, 19, of Santa Ana; Hamza Doost, 21, of Hayward; Conor Flansburg, 21, and Evan Tangeman, 21, of Newport Beach; Kunal Mehta, 45, of Irvine; Joel Cortes, 21, of Laguna Niguel; and John Tucker Desmond, 19, of Huntington Beach, who is charged with obstruction of justice. Lam, 20, the alleged organizer, is a citizen of Singapore who lived in Miami and Los Angeles. The indictment also alleges that after his September 2024 arrest, while in pretrial detention, Lam continued to pass directions to enterprise members, collect stolen cryptocurrency, and have members buy luxury Hermes Birkin bags and hand-deliver them to his girlfriend in Miami.
The investigation is being handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, the FBI's Washington Field Office, and the IRS-Criminal Investigation Washington, D.C., Field Office, with significant support from the FBI's Los Angeles and Miami field offices. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Rosenberg is prosecuting the case. An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. (Source: U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia)
来源：美国司法部哥伦比亚特区联邦检察官办公室
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：位于华盛顿特区的 E. Barrett Prettyman 美国法院大楼正门（资料图），本案替代起诉书即向该院所在的哥伦比亚特区联邦地区法院提起。Tony Webster 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The entrance of the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Court House in Washington, D.C. (file photo); the superseding indictment was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia housed there. By Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
GSM Global · 本篇英文版 English edition of this story
