Their bender lasted a month before FBI agents arrested Lam on charges that he organized a “social engineering” attack on the Washington, D.C., resident. Lam, an eighth-grade dropout from Singapore, has a plea agreement hearing set for Tuesday. His conviction would be a capstone for the government’s investigation.

The charges against Lam and 17 others are an extreme example of an increasingly common form of cybercrime. Complaints of cryptocurrency investment fraud to the FBI rose by nearly 50 percent in 2025, while Republican President Trump’s administration largely abandoned a regulatory crackdown on the volatile industry.