Adam Iza, the 26-year-old crypto figure who called himself "The Godfather," has been sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for hiring off-duty Los Angeles sheriff's deputies to harass people he was in dispute with, stealing more than $37 million from Meta, and using cryptocurrency custodians to hide proceeds and evade taxes.
U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson also ordered Iza to pay $23,402,766 in restitution, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California said. Iza pleaded guilty in January 2025 to conspiracy against rights, wire fraud, and tax evasion, and has been in custody since September 2024.
Sentence runs alongside prior Connecticut case
The 78-month term will run concurrently with the sentence Iza received last month in Connecticut over an attempted Bitcoin robbery that took place in the month before his arrest. As a result, the new sentence does not increase the amount of time he will actually spend in prison.
Use of off-duty deputies in private disputes
Between August 2021 and April 2022, Iza hired off-duty deputies as personal security. In his plea agreement, he admitted conspiring with them to obtain confidential law enforcement records and personal data on people with whom he had financial and other disputes.
He also admitted using court-authorized search warrants to track those people down and having the deputies intimidate and threaten them.
According to the Department of Justice, five former deputies have now been convicted for work they carried out for Iza. They include Eric Chase Saavedra, 42, a former federal task force officer who created the security company that supplied the deputies. He was sentenced to 21 months on September 28.
Michael David Coberg, 45, is serving 63 months for helping extort a rival and arranging a sham drug arrest. Scott Allen Simpkins, 34, received 18 months for obstructing an investigation into a $25,000 extortion at Iza's Bel Air mansion. David Anthony Rodriguez, 45, was sentenced to one year for filing a false search warrant application.
In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors wrote that people with money cannot buy "warrants, arrests, badges, or firearms for use in private disputes."
Separate Meta fraud brought in about $37 million
The fraud case was separate. Starting in December 2020, Iza gained access to Meta business manager accounts and the lines of credit tied to them, then sold that access to advertising companies. Meta clients were billed for advertising they never purchased. Once the billing was discovered, Meta refunded those clients and absorbed the loss.
About $37 million flowed into accounts belonging to Iza's companies between 2020 and 2022. He admitted receiving at least $36,360,844 in gross income through 2023 and causing the Internal Revenue Service a loss of $13,286,152, while filing no corporate tax returns at all.
To conceal the money, prosecutors said he hid his ownership of Zort, his crypto trading platform, had a co-schemer buy personal items with the funds, and moved corporate income to cryptocurrency custodians.
Former girlfriend sentenced earlier
Iris Rabaya Au, 37, Iza's former girlfriend, was sentenced to 18 months on September 21 for failing to report more than $2.6 million she received through his activities. She was ordered to pay $1,484,343 in restitution and to forfeit a fleet of luxury and high-performance cars, designer handbags, and three "Godfather" sculptures, among other assets.