Washington
Singapore man pleads guilty to orchestrating $240 million bitcoin theft from DC resident
WASHINGTON (AP) — A 22-year-old man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to teaming up with friends to steal nearly a quarter-billion dollars in bitcoin from a Washington, D.C., resident — one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in U.S. history — and then embarking on a wild spending spree with the laundered proceeds.
Malone Lam, an eighth-grade dropout who came to the U.S. from Singapore, faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years after pleading guilty to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly didn’t immediately schedule Lam’s sentencing hearing in Washington.
Lam was an organizer for a network of young men who carried out a string of crypto scams starting in 2023, prosecutors said. He is one of 18 defendants charged in the case and is the 11th to plead guilty, but his conviction marks a major breakthrough for the Justice Department’s investigation.
In August 2024, Lam and others used “social engineering” techniques to dupe the Washington man out of bitcoin worth over $245 million. Two of Lam’s alleged co-conspirators posed as representatives of Google and the Gemini crypto exchange to manipulate the man into giving them access to his Google Drive and revealing security codes that allowed Lam to siphon off over 4,100 bitcoin, according to prosecutors.
Lam helped launder and covert stolen crypto into cash that he used to buy a fleet of sports cars, rent mansions in Miami and spend millions at night clubs, including $569,000 in one evening at one Los Angeles club, authorities said.
The spending spree lasted a month before FBI agents arrested Lam in Miami. An off-duty law enforcement officer had tipped off Lam that authorities were on their way to arrest him, the indictment says.
“We always talked about what it would be like if I were to go down, but never thought it would be this crazy,” Lam told associates from jail on a recorded call, according to his indictment.
Lam’s purchases included a $2 million watch and over 30 cars, including custom Porsches, Lamborghinis and Ferraris, according to the FBI. When Lam indicated that he purchased most but not all of those vehicles himself, the judge asked him if he remembers which ones he personally bought.
“I would need some time,” he told the judge.
Colorado
Former crime analyst receives 10-year sentence for manipulating DNA data
GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) — A judge sentenced a former forensic analyst for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to 10 years in prison on Tuesday after authorities said her manipulation of DNA data raised questions about the validity of hundreds of criminal cases.
Yvonne “Missy” Woods pleaded guilty in June to perjury, attempting to influence a public servant, forgery and committing a cybercrime. Dozens of other counts were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
Problems with the scientist’s work were found in cases involving homicide, sexual assault, robbery and other crimes, according to authorities. Prosecutors were forced to review hundreds of cases, and at least one murder conviction was vacated as a result of Woods’ misconduct.
Woods had faced between 8 and 16 years in prison during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing before state District Judge Andrew Poland in Golden, Colorado.
She resigned in 2023 after a decades-long career. Authorities accused her of altering data to conceal tampering, deleting data that showed she failed to troubleshoot issues within the testing process and not thoroughly documenting tests performed in case records.
Woods apologized during Tuesday’s hearing but said she knew saying sorry would not undo the harm she caused, the Denver Post reported.
“For many years I was entrusted with evidence that could have profound consequences for defendants, victims, families and the courts. I failed that responsibility. I am deeply sorry for that failure,” she said.
Following the sentencing, Colorado Bureau of Investigation officials said they have sought to reform their laboratories in response to the data scandal as they try to rebuild public trust.
“The actions of one individual never define this organization, and they do not define the dedicated public servants who continued showing up every day with integrity,” bureau Director Armando Saldate said in a statement.
The investigation into Woods’ misconduct began in September 2023 after an intern at the bureau discovered missing information in a case that Woods handled in 2018. According to an arrest affidavit, Woods allegedly told investigators at one point that she had changed data to complete cases more quickly.
In the vacated murder case, Michael Clark was released from prison in 2025 after his lawyers argued that DNA evidence was mishandled by Woods. Prosecutors said they would seek to retry him.
In two homicide cases, the defendants received lesser sentences under plea deals than they could have faced if they went to trial because prosecutors were afraid Woods’ involvement could lead to acquittals.
Convictions in other cases also have been challenged in courts across Colorado.
A Colorado Bureau of Investigation internal affairs report in 2024 revealed that concerns about Woods’ work first surfaced more than a decade ago. As early as 2014, a worker questioned her testing of evidence, and in 2018 she was temporarily removed from working on DNA cases after being accused of data manipulation, the report said.
State officials have said that the response to Woods’ actions could end up costing more than $11 million.
New York
Former Amazon employees sue over alleged discrimination against pregnant workers
A group of former Amazon warehouse employees is suing the company for systemically discriminating against pregnant workers, accusing the company of denying them basic accommodations and penalizing some who took breaks to pump milk or time off for hospital visits.
The four plaintiffs filed a proposed nationwide class action in a Brooklyn, New York federal court Tuesday, accusing Amazon of violating the 2022 Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which requires employers with 15 or more workers to provide a “reasonable accommodation” for pregnancy and childbirth related medical conditions. To refuse an accommodation, companies must show it would create “undue hardship” for the business.
“Denying a pregnant worker a stool, a lighter workload, or a bathroom break is a violation of federal law — it’s that simple,” said Inimai Chettiar, president of A Better Balance, a nonprofit organization that is representing the plaintiffs along with the law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel. “Amazon has built an empire on speed and efficiency — speed and efficiency that too often sacrifices the rights of pregnant workers it refuses to accommodate.”
Amazon denied the accusations, saying the lawsuit’s description of events is inaccurate.
“Ensuring the health and well-being of our employees is one of our greatest responsibilities, and we strive to provide a safe and supportive environment for everyone, which includes supporting tens of thousands of employees with pregnancy accommodations each year,” said Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson.
Nantel said Amazon has approved “more than 99.9% of pregnancy related accommodations” over the past year and that “the accounts shared by A Better Balance contain inaccuracies and omit important details.”
A Better Balance spearheaded a decade-long campaign for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, drawing attention to the plight of thousands of women, especially low-wage workers, who have been pushed out of work for requesting accommodations such as a chair or stool, leave to attend prenatal appointments, light duty for manual labor, or temporary reassignment.
The law passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and took effect in June 2023 but has since been embroiled in several lawsuits filed by Republican-led states and religious groups, which objected to regulations passed by the Biden-era Equal Employment Opportunity Commission establishing that workers seeking abortions are entitled to accommodations.
A federal judge last year struck down the abortion provision of the regulations, which the EEOC, now led by a Republican majority, plans to revise. A separate lawsuit filed by the state of Texas takes aim at the entirety of the law, claiming its passage was unconstitutional because a majority of House members were not physically present to approve the law as part of a spending package in December 2022.
Despite those disputes, the EEOC has been regularly enforcing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, pursuing companies who deny pregnant workers accommodations.
The new lawsuit against Amazon claims the company’s “discriminatory and retaliatory policies” against pregnant workers have already been well-documented in state investigations in New Jersey and New York and EEOC findings.
One of the plaintiffs, Jennifer Hatch, worked in a role processing customer returns in Lancaster, New York, which involved standing for several hours at a time and lifting boxes of various weights to sort their contents. After she found out she was pregnant in January 2025, her doctor determined her pregnancy to be high-risk due to her age, and recommended she sit down at regular intervals.
But when she requested a 30-pound lifting restriction, a sitting break for 15 minutes every four hours, and a maximum of eight hours per shift, Amazon delayed and then denied the requests, according to the lawsuit.
Then, in early March 2025, a manager refused to let Hatch sit in an available chair since her accommodation was not approved, although she was struggling to breathe, the complaint says. And when she clocked out of work early multiple times to go to the hospital for pregnancy-related abdominal pain, exacerbated by standing for long periods at work, Amazon docked her unpaid time off balance and later fired her for violating an attendance policy.
“Lower wage, shift, and hourly women workers are foundational to this country’s economy — yet they’re being treated as disposable. And practices that deny pregnant workers simple accommodations that pose no threat to productivity are not just unfair, they’re illegal,” Chettiar told AP in an emailed statement.
Singapore man pleads guilty to orchestrating $240 million bitcoin theft from DC resident
WASHINGTON (AP) — A 22-year-old man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to teaming up with friends to steal nearly a quarter-billion dollars in bitcoin from a Washington, D.C., resident — one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in U.S. history — and then embarking on a wild spending spree with the laundered proceeds.
Malone Lam, an eighth-grade dropout who came to the U.S. from Singapore, faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years after pleading guilty to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly didn’t immediately schedule Lam’s sentencing hearing in Washington.
Lam was an organizer for a network of young men who carried out a string of crypto scams starting in 2023, prosecutors said. He is one of 18 defendants charged in the case and is the 11th to plead guilty, but his conviction marks a major breakthrough for the Justice Department’s investigation.
In August 2024, Lam and others used “social engineering” techniques to dupe the Washington man out of bitcoin worth over $245 million. Two of Lam’s alleged co-conspirators posed as representatives of Google and the Gemini crypto exchange to manipulate the man into giving them access to his Google Drive and revealing security codes that allowed Lam to siphon off over 4,100 bitcoin, according to prosecutors.
Lam helped launder and covert stolen crypto into cash that he used to buy a fleet of sports cars, rent mansions in Miami and spend millions at night clubs, including $569,000 in one evening at one Los Angeles club, authorities said.
The spending spree lasted a month before FBI agents arrested Lam in Miami. An off-duty law enforcement officer had tipped off Lam that authorities were on their way to arrest him, the indictment says.
“We always talked about what it would be like if I were to go down, but never thought it would be this crazy,” Lam told associates from jail on a recorded call, according to his indictment.
Lam’s purchases included a $2 million watch and over 30 cars, including custom Porsches, Lamborghinis and Ferraris, according to the FBI. When Lam indicated that he purchased most but not all of those vehicles himself, the judge asked him if he remembers which ones he personally bought.
“I would need some time,” he told the judge.
Colorado
Former crime analyst receives 10-year sentence for manipulating DNA data
GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) — A judge sentenced a former forensic analyst for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to 10 years in prison on Tuesday after authorities said her manipulation of DNA data raised questions about the validity of hundreds of criminal cases.
Yvonne “Missy” Woods pleaded guilty in June to perjury, attempting to influence a public servant, forgery and committing a cybercrime. Dozens of other counts were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
Problems with the scientist’s work were found in cases involving homicide, sexual assault, robbery and other crimes, according to authorities. Prosecutors were forced to review hundreds of cases, and at least one murder conviction was vacated as a result of Woods’ misconduct.
Woods had faced between 8 and 16 years in prison during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing before state District Judge Andrew Poland in Golden, Colorado.
She resigned in 2023 after a decades-long career. Authorities accused her of altering data to conceal tampering, deleting data that showed she failed to troubleshoot issues within the testing process and not thoroughly documenting tests performed in case records.
Woods apologized during Tuesday’s hearing but said she knew saying sorry would not undo the harm she caused, the Denver Post reported.
“For many years I was entrusted with evidence that could have profound consequences for defendants, victims, families and the courts. I failed that responsibility. I am deeply sorry for that failure,” she said.
Following the sentencing, Colorado Bureau of Investigation officials said they have sought to reform their laboratories in response to the data scandal as they try to rebuild public trust.
“The actions of one individual never define this organization, and they do not define the dedicated public servants who continued showing up every day with integrity,” bureau Director Armando Saldate said in a statement.
The investigation into Woods’ misconduct began in September 2023 after an intern at the bureau discovered missing information in a case that Woods handled in 2018. According to an arrest affidavit, Woods allegedly told investigators at one point that she had changed data to complete cases more quickly.
In the vacated murder case, Michael Clark was released from prison in 2025 after his lawyers argued that DNA evidence was mishandled by Woods. Prosecutors said they would seek to retry him.
In two homicide cases, the defendants received lesser sentences under plea deals than they could have faced if they went to trial because prosecutors were afraid Woods’ involvement could lead to acquittals.
Convictions in other cases also have been challenged in courts across Colorado.
A Colorado Bureau of Investigation internal affairs report in 2024 revealed that concerns about Woods’ work first surfaced more than a decade ago. As early as 2014, a worker questioned her testing of evidence, and in 2018 she was temporarily removed from working on DNA cases after being accused of data manipulation, the report said.
State officials have said that the response to Woods’ actions could end up costing more than $11 million.
New York
Former Amazon employees sue over alleged discrimination against pregnant workers
A group of former Amazon warehouse employees is suing the company for systemically discriminating against pregnant workers, accusing the company of denying them basic accommodations and penalizing some who took breaks to pump milk or time off for hospital visits.
The four plaintiffs filed a proposed nationwide class action in a Brooklyn, New York federal court Tuesday, accusing Amazon of violating the 2022 Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which requires employers with 15 or more workers to provide a “reasonable accommodation” for pregnancy and childbirth related medical conditions. To refuse an accommodation, companies must show it would create “undue hardship” for the business.
“Denying a pregnant worker a stool, a lighter workload, or a bathroom break is a violation of federal law — it’s that simple,” said Inimai Chettiar, president of A Better Balance, a nonprofit organization that is representing the plaintiffs along with the law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel. “Amazon has built an empire on speed and efficiency — speed and efficiency that too often sacrifices the rights of pregnant workers it refuses to accommodate.”
Amazon denied the accusations, saying the lawsuit’s description of events is inaccurate.
“Ensuring the health and well-being of our employees is one of our greatest responsibilities, and we strive to provide a safe and supportive environment for everyone, which includes supporting tens of thousands of employees with pregnancy accommodations each year,” said Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson.
Nantel said Amazon has approved “more than 99.9% of pregnancy related accommodations” over the past year and that “the accounts shared by A Better Balance contain inaccuracies and omit important details.”
A Better Balance spearheaded a decade-long campaign for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, drawing attention to the plight of thousands of women, especially low-wage workers, who have been pushed out of work for requesting accommodations such as a chair or stool, leave to attend prenatal appointments, light duty for manual labor, or temporary reassignment.
The law passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and took effect in June 2023 but has since been embroiled in several lawsuits filed by Republican-led states and religious groups, which objected to regulations passed by the Biden-era Equal Employment Opportunity Commission establishing that workers seeking abortions are entitled to accommodations.
A federal judge last year struck down the abortion provision of the regulations, which the EEOC, now led by a Republican majority, plans to revise. A separate lawsuit filed by the state of Texas takes aim at the entirety of the law, claiming its passage was unconstitutional because a majority of House members were not physically present to approve the law as part of a spending package in December 2022.
Despite those disputes, the EEOC has been regularly enforcing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, pursuing companies who deny pregnant workers accommodations.
The new lawsuit against Amazon claims the company’s “discriminatory and retaliatory policies” against pregnant workers have already been well-documented in state investigations in New Jersey and New York and EEOC findings.
One of the plaintiffs, Jennifer Hatch, worked in a role processing customer returns in Lancaster, New York, which involved standing for several hours at a time and lifting boxes of various weights to sort their contents. After she found out she was pregnant in January 2025, her doctor determined her pregnancy to be high-risk due to her age, and recommended she sit down at regular intervals.
But when she requested a 30-pound lifting restriction, a sitting break for 15 minutes every four hours, and a maximum of eight hours per shift, Amazon delayed and then denied the requests, according to the lawsuit.
Then, in early March 2025, a manager refused to let Hatch sit in an available chair since her accommodation was not approved, although she was struggling to breathe, the complaint says. And when she clocked out of work early multiple times to go to the hospital for pregnancy-related abdominal pain, exacerbated by standing for long periods at work, Amazon docked her unpaid time off balance and later fired her for violating an attendance policy.
“Lower wage, shift, and hourly women workers are foundational to this country’s economy — yet they’re being treated as disposable. And practices that deny pregnant workers simple accommodations that pose no threat to productivity are not just unfair, they’re illegal,” Chettiar told AP in an emailed statement.
