LA sheriff deputies admit to helping crypto ‘Godfather’ extort victims

Two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies have admitted to using their law enforcement powers to help their private security clients, including the jailed crypto extorter dubbed “The Godfather.”

David Anthony Rodriguez struck a deal to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy against rights, while Christopher Michael Cadman made a deal to admit to conspiracy against rights and subscribing to a false tax return, the Department of Justice said on Monday.

The Justice Department said the deputies “used their positions in law enforcement while acting as private security for their off-duty clients,” including Adam Iza, who ran the crypto trading platform Zort and is also known as Ahmed Faiq and “The Godfather.”

Source: Los Angeles US Attorney’s OfficeIza pleaded guilty to conspiracy against rights, wire fraud and tax evasion in January after prosecutors said he paid three LASD deputies — including Rodriguez and Cadman — to unlawfully file search warrants and access police data to extort at least one victim out of their crypto.

Cadman helped threaten victim held at gunpoint

Prosecutors said Cadman and another deputy, only referred to as “LASD Deputy 6,” had “intimidated and threatened a victim who was one of Iza’s adversaries” in August 2021.

“LASD Deputy 6 held the victim at gunpoint during a meeting at Iza’s office inside his Bel Air mansion. Immediately afterward, the victim transferred approximately $25,000 from his bank account to Iza’s bank account in response to the threat and demand,” according to the DOJ.

Later, in September 2021, Cadman and other law enforcement officers made a traffic stop and arrested the same victim. He admitted to helping “organize the traffic stop and arrest on Iza’s behalf.”

He also failed to report at least $40,500 in income on his 2021 tax return.

The Justice Department said Cadman could face up to 13 years in prison and will make an appearance at federal court “in the coming days.”

Rodriguez used search warrants to find victim

Prosecutors said Iza had hired Rodriguez, but the former cop admitted in a plea agreement to lying to a judge to obtain a search warrant in July 2022 for a client other than Iza, who hired him as private security.

He claimed the warrant was related to a robbery investigation when in reality it was to get the GPS location of a victim’s phone for his client.

Rodriguez shared the location with Eric Chase Saavedra, an LASD deputy also hired by Iza, who pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy against rights and filing a false tax return

“LASD deputies and other co-conspirators would use information obtained from the court-authorized search warrant to harass, threaten, and intimidate the victim,” the Justice Department said.

Rodriguez had his sentencing scheduled for Nov. 10 and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Saavedra is free on $50,000 bond and is facing up to 13 years in prison. The Justice Department said he is expected to be sentenced “in the coming months.”

Iza called cops his “pawns”

Iza had bragged about paying as much as $280,000 a month to the deputies, whom he called his “pawns,” according to an FBI affidavit filed in an LA federal court in September.

A message obtained by the FBI shows Iza calling law enforcement officers “pawns.” Source: CourtListenerIn another incident, the FBI said Iza used police information to try to coerce one unnamed victim into handing over a laptop used to store crypto, who received intimidating messages showing his information in a police database along with pictures of his family and car.

Iza’s ex-girlfriend, Iris Ramaya Au, also agreed to plead guilty to giving a false tax return “for failing to report more than $2.6 million in ill-gotten gains she obtained via her then-boyfriend’s criminal activities,” the Justice Department said in March.

Related: FOMO, lax rules are fueling the crypto crime supercycle

Au created shell corporations and opened bank accounts for the firms at Iza’s direction, then used the illicit funds to pay around $1 million to LASD deputies and to purchase or lease luxury real estate, cars, jewelry and clothing.

Iza’s lawyer, Josef Sadat, told Cointelegraph in September, before Iza pleaded guilty, that the charges “are the opposite of his true inner character,” that he “did not develop many healthy relationships” due to spending “the majority of his life behind a computer.”

Sadat said the money Iza earned from his crypto platform attracted “the worst type of blood-sucking characters that Southern California has to offer.”

Iza’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Dec. 15. He faces up to 35 years in prison.

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