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According to court documents, the syndicate stole more than US$250 million in cryptocurrency between late 2023 and early 2025.
Members of this crime ring were based in California, Connecticut, New York, Florida and abroad, and were allegedly led by Lam. Seventeen people have been arrested or charged in connection with the syndicate.
In February 2024, Ferro travelled to Winnsboro, Texas, where he broke into a victim’s home and stole a hardware wallet containing about 100 Bitcoin, valued at the time at more than US$5 million. He then laundered the stolen funds through cryptocurrency exchanges.
After he moved to California in early 2024, Ferro connected with members of the syndicate, including Lam, where he offered his burglary services.
In July that year, Ferro flew to New Mexico, where he watched a home for several days, using a mobile phone to monitor a victim’s movements.
The syndicate had socially engineered the victim into giving them access to his email account.
Lam and another alleged co-conspirator asked Ferro to commit this burglary because they believed the victim held about US$30 million in virtual currency in a hardware wallet.
Lam tracked the victim’s location by logging into his iCloud account. When the group believed the victim had left the home, Ferro broke into the home by using a brick to smash a window at the rear of the house.
He scoured the home for the hardware wallet and took several digital devices, but could not find the wallet.
Ferro was caught on the victim’s surveillance camera.
The 20-year-old also solicited additional burglaries from the syndicate in August 2024, saying he needed “licks”, referring to targets.
The prosecution said that Ferro learnt several members of the syndicate had stolen US$248 million in cryptocurrency from a victim almost immediately after the theft occurred. Ferro was with Lam for portions of the crime.
Following Lam’s arrest in September 2024, Ferro collected funds from other members of the crime ring to pay for Lam’s attorneys, despite knowing the funds were illegal profits from crime.
Specifically, Ferro received hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency, converted it into different types of cryptocurrencies, then converted it into fiat cash through illicit crypto-to-cash services,” said the prosecution.
Ferro also organised the purchase and shipment of Hermes Birkin bags on behalf of Lam for his girlfriend in Miami.
Ferro was arrested on May 13, 2025, and possessed a fake identification document and two firearms.
