California Man Sentenced to 78 Months in $250 Million Crypto Theft Conspiracy

The case arose from a Dec. 28, 2024, home invasion in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood targeting a 17-year-old cryptocurrency holder. Prosecutors said former Los Angeles Police Department officer Eric Halem and accomplices posed as police, restrained the teenager and his girlfriend with handcuffs, and threatened to kill him. The group took a hard drive holding about $350,000 in Bitcoin, along with other property, highlighting the physical-security risks facing owners of digital assets.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury convicted Halem, 38, of kidnapping and robbery on March 2, 2026, after deliberating for less than a day. A judge sentenced him on March 31 to life in prison plus 15 years. Halem served 13 years with the LAPD and left the department in 2022, though he remained a reserve officer when the robbery occurred. Proceedings against other defendants in the case remain pending.

Delio operated a South Korean crypto deposit and lending service that promised high yields on digital assets including Bitcoin and Ether. The platform abruptly suspended withdrawals on June 14, 2023, leaving about 2,800 customers unable to recover funds. Its collapse became a prominent test of accountability in the country’s centralized crypto-finance sector, where customers entrust assets to an operator rather than retaining control through private wallets.

The Seoul Southern District Court sentenced Delio Chief Executive Jeong Sang-ho to 15 years in prison on Aug. 13, 2026, after finding him responsible for taking customer Bitcoin and Ether valued at about $50 million. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year term in a broader case involving roughly 250 billion won in digital assets. The first-instance judgment ranks among South Korea’s toughest penalties for a major crypto-platform fraud and remains subject to appeal.

U.S. prosecutors said Malone Lam built an international cybercrime network through contacts made on online gaming platforms, with the enterprise operating from at least October 2023 to May 2025. Its members used social engineering and, at times, home break-ins to obtain credentials and drain cryptocurrency wallets. The case underscores how attackers can exploit a holder’s identity and trust without breaching the underlying blockchain.

Lam, a 22-year-old Singapore citizen and former Miami resident, pleaded guilty on Sept. 8, 2026, in U.S. District Court in Washington to one count of participating in a RICO conspiracy. Prosecutors valued the cryptocurrency stolen and laundered at more than $245 million. Lam spent as much as $500,000 on nightclub services in a single evening and faces up to 20 years in prison; Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly set a status hearing for Dec. 8.