On-chain investigator ZachXBT publicly named practitioner Austin Fine, accusing him of exchanging stolen crypto assets related to the Malone case for luxury goods and charging fees, stating that Fine "may snitch." He indicated that he would consider severing ties with Fine until the victims are compensated, and would negatively impact Fine's current and future brand collaborations.

He later added that he has traced part of the funds on-chain through Monero to luxury car dealer TBTFW in Los Angeles. Monero by default hides the sender, receiver, and amount, making it a common tool for laundering stolen funds; ZachXBT has previously tracked large amounts of stolen money entering Monero through instant exchanges.

The accusations remain as statements from the investigator, with no simultaneous court filings or complete public responses from Fine widely reported. ZachXBT's deterrent tool is the public mapping and industry isolation: instead of immediate arrests, he first cuts off cooperation and reputation. Naming "snitching" rewrites the relationship from collaborative investigation to opposition.

In the background, he previously led the tracking of a Bitcoin theft of approximately $243 million in 2024: suspects include Malone Lam, Jeandiel Serrano, and Veer Chetal, who used customer service impersonation and social engineering. Lam is accused of using stolen funds to purchase over 30 luxury cars and spending over $569,000 in one night at a Los Angeles nightclub; prosecutors claim he admitted to using profits from multiple thefts to buy cars. About $70 million of the case has been recovered or frozen, with over $100 million still missing.

Luxury car dealerships serve as the interface between on-chain and off-chain: once the currency is exchanged for cars, the assets become physical items registered with the transportation department. By naming the dealership in his post, the investigator effectively turns the transfer records into the next layer of evidence, also involving the dealer in reputational risk.

Mechanically, this represents a market punishment outsourced to law enforcement. The buyer aims to launder funds into a brag-worthy physical asset, the intermediary profits from exchange differences or service fees, and the seller is the dealership's inventory. ZachXBT stands on the side of public accountability, using attention to freeze brand budgets. If funds go through Monero to the dealership, the on-chain traceability only reaches the exchange door; the real pressure is on practitioners still doing public endorsements and dealers who must explain the source of their payments.

Source: Public Information