A 22-year-old California resident pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy charges this week after being accused by the DOJ of buying homes and laundering money on behalf of a criminal gang that stole cryptocurrency through social engineering schemes.

Evan Tangeman became the ninth person to plead guilty as part of a wider Justice Department takedown of a criminal group known as the Social Engineering Enterprise. 

The group gained access to databases of people with large amounts of cryptocurrency and either scammed them into providing access to their funds or broke into their homes to physically steal devices. Members of the group were previously charged with stealing more than $263 million worth of cryptocurrency from a victim in Washington, D.C.

Tangeman helped the group launder millions of dollars worth of stolen cryptocurrency and assisted them in renting lavish mansions across California and Florida where they lived and conducted the crimes. He will be sentenced on April 24, 2026.

On Monday, a superseding indictment was also unsealed charging three more members of the Social Engineering Enterprise with crimes related to the conspiracy. 

Several members have been recently arrested in Miami and Dubai.

Origins of Social Engineering Enterprise

Prosecutors said the Social Engineering Enterprise began around October 2023 when Malone Lam — a 20-year-old Singaporean national who was previously charged for the $263 million crypto theft — became roommates in Texas with two of the unnamed co-conspirators and began conducting social engineering attacks. 

Lam and the two others conducted social engineering attacks for several months, paying their rent through cybercrime. 

Through other friendships developed through gaming platforms, multiple people based in California, Connecticut, New York, Florida and other countries joined the effort to create the Social Engineering Enterprise. 

The group split responsibilities between database hackers, target identifiers, people who called potential victims, money launderers and residential burglars who targeted hardware cryptocurrency wallets.

Members hacked into databases or purchased them off the dark web, providing them with lists of people who had large amounts of cryptocurrency. Other members called victims and obtained access to their email accounts or cryptocurrency wallets by tricking them into thinking they were helping them secure against a cyberattack.

In one instance, the group sent fake push notifications to victims before calling them claiming to work for the support team at cryptocurrency platforms or email providers — asking victims for login information to email accounts and cloud storage accounts as well as private keys and cryptocurrency account information that could be used to steal funds.  

Tangeman and several others served as money launderers, funneling the stolen cryptocurrency through exchanges and mixers before cashing the funds out into fiat currency and dispersing it between Social Engineering Enterprise members. 

At times, the money launderers bought lavish items like cars or expensive bags for gang members. The indictment lists several instances where members spent more than $500,000 per night at clubs or spent millions to rent private jets and take international vacations. By 2024, members of the group began purchasing and carrying firearms. 

In some cases, the money was sent to members in bags or stuffed inside dolls. Tangeman was also deeply involved in securing luxury rental homes for members in Los Angeles, the Hamptons and Miami. The group used Telegram and Signal and frequently changed usernames to conceal the activity. 

The new indictment also details the incident involving the victim in Washington, D.C. — where the group managed to steal more than 4,100 Bitcoin. At the time, that was worth $263 million and is now valued at $368 million. 

Members of the group convinced the victim to download a remote desktop program on his computer and used their access to steal account information. The group boasted about the theft but by September 2024, members of the group began to worry about getting caught and specifically warned over text that Lam was endangering himself by trying to launder large chunks of the $263 million theft. 

Tangeman first became involved in late 2023 when Lam and others moved to Los Angeles and needed help finding rental homes. He assisted the group in finding large homes and used fake or stolen names to secure the leases. He eventually became a high-level money launderer, using unnamed bulk-cash converters to turn the cryptocurrency into fiat cash. 

Court documents showed that members at one point sent each other a database of over 1,000 targets containing emails and identifiers. The indictment lists multiple victims, including ones who lost between $600,000 and $14 million. 

For one victim, the group hacked into their iCloud account and tracked their location. In July 2024, they set up cameras outside the victim’s home in New Mexico and conducted a break in on July 8, 2024. The members stole hardware devices that contained hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cryptocurrency. 

Lam was notified by an off-duty law enforcement officer that police were on their way to arrest him in Miami on September 18, 2024. He threw his phone into the Biscayne Bay to destroy the evidence. From Los Angeles, Tangeman used remote access to security cameras to watch as the FBI searched Lam’s home. He shared the video with other members of the group.

Lam’s attempts to be released on bail were rejected throughout the fall of 2024. Social Engineering Enterprise members continued to speak to Lam while he was held inside the Miami jail and relayed other messages to him, including news that he is “Tik Tok famous” due to coverage of their cryptocurrency thefts. 

The group continued its activities until May 2025.