Fraud in Meta, corrupt police officers: The “God Father” of crypto sentenced

The nickname does not lead to impunity. Adam Iza, self-proclaimed crypto entrepreneur “The Godfather”, was sentenced on October 5 to 78 months in prison, or six and a half years, by a federal court in Los Angeles. Meta advertising account fraud, tax evasion and use of corrupt police officers: the case goes far beyond its activities in cryptocurrencies.

Judge Percy Anderson also ordered $23.4 million in restitution. This sentence will, however, be carried out simultaneously with a fifteen-year prison sentence handed down in September in another case linked to an attempted theft of bitcoins.

Meta accounts hijacked and police officers serving the “Godfather”

The first part is based on the misappropriation of Meta Business Manager accounts and their credit lines. After fraudulently obtaining access to it, Iza resold it to advertising companies. Meta customers were then billed for campaigns that they had not ordered. The platform reimbursed them and ultimately bore the losses.

Iza admitted to having received at least $36.36 million in gross income from this system between 2020 and 2023. The lack of tax declarations and the concealment maneuvers resulted in a loss of $13.28 million for the American tax authorities. In particular, he hid his ownership of Zort and transferred income to cryptocurrency custody providers.

At the same time, he paid off-duty Los Angeles sheriff's deputies. Their mission went beyond close protection: access to confidential files, intimidation and misuse of police procedures against their adversaries. Five former deputies employed by Iza have been convicted of federal offenses.

In an episode described by prosecutors and reported by the press, a police officer obtained under false pretenses the geolocation of a victim whom Iza thought had a computer containing more than 100 million dollars in cryptocurrencies. Three armed men then tried to enter her home to rob him. They had fled after a shot from the victim.

A conviction which will be carried out with a sentence of fifteen years

This decision comes less than a month after that of the federal court in Connecticut. On September 9, Iza was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for his role in an attempted bitcoin theft that led to a kidnapping in Danbury in August 2024.

The victims were the parents of an individual involved in a major bitcoin theft. The group wanted to recover some of these funds. According to authorities, Iza helped finance and gave logistical instructions to some participants.