When a teenager and his crew managed to steal $243 million in Bitcoin from a single Gemini account, it was not because they broke through firewalls or discovered a rare exploit. It was because they picked up the phone. In August 2024, nineteen-year-old Veer Chetal and his partners, including Malone Lam, convinced a victim to reset authentication, share their screen, and expose wallet credentials. Within hours, more than 4,000 Bitcoins were siphoned off and scattered across multiple exchanges.
The crew operated like a startup gone rogue. Lam scoured emails for sensitive data, Chetal accessed accounts, and Jeandiel Serrano posed as a support agent. Court filings later revealed the money trail: ten cars, millions spent on luxury goods, half a million dollars on nights out in Los Angeles and Miami. Incredibly, Chetal even livestreamed part of the theft and accidentally leaked his own name.
For Kevin Leyes, CEO of LeyesX, the case illustrates the truth that no ultra-wealthy individual can ignore. "The next $200 million hack will not start with a supercomputer. It will start with a phone call, an old email account, or a data broker file listing your child's school," he says.
People as Enterprises
LeyesX was founded on a blunt observation. Ultra-wealthy individuals are now as valuable a target as entire corporations, yet their defenses are often less sophisticated. A CEO may have enterprise firewalls at the office, but their personal Gmail, SIM card, or dormant Dropbox account is often unprotected.
LeyesX treats each client as an enterprise in themselves. Its "Invisible Armor" system combines:
AI-driven monitoring that scans dark web forums, Telegram groups, and data brokers in real time, ranking leaks by exploitability.
Remediation and takedowns that pursue exposed data at the source, filing DMCA, GDPR, and platform escalation requests.
SIM swap hardening with carrier-level freezes and account notes.
Deception networks that seed fake breadcrumbs into broker systems, diverting attackers toward dead ends.
Reputation management through its sister firm Leyes Media, ensuring verified accounts, SEO dominance, and authoritative press coverage overwhelm false signals.
Concierge escalation that brings legal, technical, and PR teams into action within hours.
"No one can promise total erasure," Leyes explains. "But we collapse the visible attack surface so aggressively that most attacks either fail outright or waste time chasing shadows."
The First Shock
Every engagement begins with a forensic risk report. For clients, the results are often shocking.
"Even billionaires are surprised when they see what is already out there. A home address linked to an old filing, a child's school visible in open records, a leaked scan of a driver's license floating in a broker dump. It only takes one connection for an attacker to weaponize it," Leyes says.
From that point, clients choose their posture. Some prefer to disappear entirely. Others want to remain visible but with boundaries, using Leyes Media to manage exposure while LeyesX locks down personal infrastructure.
Lessons from the Gemini Heist
The Gemini attack shows how a single social engineering chain can cost hundreds of millions. What would have changed the outcome?
FIDO2 keys that cannot be phished over a phone call.
Carrier-level SIM locks to block porting.
Spoof-detection AI to flag fake support numbers in real time.
Red-team rehearsals that simulate attacks and train clients to respond.
Ironically, just as Chetal and Lam exploited breadcrumbs, their downfall came from leaving their own. Lam was identified through Instagram posts and Discord videos flaunting stolen funds. Chetal leaked his name during a livestream. Both sides of the equation are built on data trails.
"At LeyesX, our job is to erase the trails that can be exploited and control the ones that cannot be removed," Leyes says.
Exclusivity as Protection
LeyesX pricing starts at $10,000 a month and scales past $100,000 for clients requiring continuous surveillance. The exclusivity is intentional.
"We offer peace of mind for those who cannot afford a single breach. Scarcity is part of the service. When attackers see nothing to exploit, they move on," Leyes says.
Clients include billionaires, global companies such as Stripe and Crypto.com, and sovereign governments including El Salvador and Argentina. Ambassador Milena Mayorga has publicly credited Leyes with digital advisory work that strengthened El Salvador's security posture.
The Next Phase of Attacks
As generative AI matures, attackers are already deploying deepfake voices to bypass phone verification and adaptive phishing that changes on the fly. For Leyes, this only reinforces his model.
"AI has lowered the cost of attacks. The only way forward is to stay ahead of the curve. The future of wealth will not be about what you can show off. It will be about what you can keep invisible," he says.
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