A California man referred to as “Shrek,” “Papa,” and “The Accountant” pleaded guilty on Tuesday for his role in stealing over $263 million in cryptocurrencies.

Kunal Mehta, 45, is the eighth individual to plead guilty to a RICO conspiracy, charges typically reserved for large organised crime cartels, that leveraged social engineering tactics to rob users of their cryptocurrencies.

The individuals involved, predominantly teenagers and young men in their twenties, laundered the funds to purchase exotic cars, rent private jets, and splash out on lavish evenings at nightclubs.

“Kunal Mehta along with his co-conspirators stole hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency from victims and then laundered that money to give it the appearance of legitimacy, spending it lavishly on themselves,” said US Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

Mehta set up shell companies, executed crypto-to-cash conversions, and sent wire transfers on behalf of the group to obfuscate their identities.

He charged a 10% fee for his services, which also included ginning up so-called straw signers to officiate car titles and purchase documents, US authorities said.

Wads of cash

The case was first unsealed in May, and painted a picture of gaudy luxury that spanned from 2023 until this year.

Members of the group would penetrate websites and servers to obtain key information on users’ crypto holdings, while “organisers” identified the targets.

The defendants called the targets and convinced them that their accounts had been compromised by a cyberattack, urging them to act quickly to protect their holdings. Instead, the defendants drained the targets’ wallets.

The operation generated so much cash that the defendants resorted to stuffing wads into Squishmallows stuffed animals and shipping them by mail to one another.

Last July, prosecutors said Marlon Ferro, a 19-year-old member of the group that went by the nickname “GothFerrari,” broke into a residence in New Mexico and stole a hardware crypto wallet while Malone Lam, a 20-year-old member who went by “King Greavys” and “Anne Hathaway,” monitored the victim’s movements by hacking their iCloud account.

Liam Kelly is DL News’ Berlin-based DeFi correspondent. Have a tip? Get in touch at liam@dlnews.com.