The U.S. Department of Justice has charged 12 individuals in a $263 million encryption fraud case, with one victim losing 4,100 BTC.

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged 12 defendants with involvement in a $263 million cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering case. The criminal gang, mostly young people, met through online gaming and later stole the victims’ crypto assets through hacking, social engineering and burglary, with one victim losing about 4,100 bitcoins, worth about $230 million. To cover up their ill-gotten gains, the suspects stuffed large amounts of cash into Squishmallows plush toys and mailed them to each other through the U.S. postal system. The main suspects include 20-year-old Malone Lam (aka “King Greavys”), 19-year-old Marlon Ferro (“GothFerrari”) and 21-year-old Conor Flansburg (“Green Room”), a 45-year-old California resident Kunal Mehta (aka “Papa”) handling the money laundering operation, and eight other defendants. They are accused of spending $500,000 a night in a nightclub and owning a private jet and a multimillion-dollar luxury car, and some of the suspects have now been arrested in the United States, while two others are allegedly residing in Dubai. （DL News）