In Los Angeles County, two former Sheriff’s Department deputies have confessed to abusing their official positions. They reportedly leveraged their authority to benefit private security clients, one of whom was the notorious “Godfather,” a crypto extortionist.
David Anthony Rodriguez entered into an agreement, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy against civil rights. Simultaneously, Christopher Michael Cadman conceded to similar charges, including conspiracy against rights and filing a fraudulent tax return, as announced by the Department of Justice (source) on Monday.
According to the Justice Department, the deputies “exploited their law enforcement roles while employed as private security for outside clients,” a list that included Adam Iza, the head of crypto trading firm Zort, also known as Ahmed Faiq or “The Godfather.”
Iza previously admitted guilt to conspiracy against rights, wire fraud, and tax evasion. Prosecutors alleged that he bribed three LASD deputies, including Rodriguez and Cadman, to illegally obtain search warrants and access confidential police information for the purpose of extorting cryptocurrency from at least one individual.
Cadman’s Role in Victim Intimidation
Prosecutors presented evidence indicating that Cadman, along with another deputy (referred to only as “LASD Deputy 6”), engaged in “intimidation and threats against a victim considered an adversary by Iza” during August 2021.
The DOJ stated that “LASD Deputy 6 held the victim at gunpoint during a meeting conducted at Iza’s office, located within his Bel Air estate. Following this incident, the victim transferred around $25,000 from his account to Iza’s as a direct response to the threat and subsequent demand.”
Later, in September 2021, Cadman and other officers executed a traffic stop, arresting the same victim. Cadman confessed to assisting in “organizing the traffic stop and subsequent arrest on Iza’s behalf.”
Furthermore, Cadman failed to declare at least $40,500 in income on his 2021 tax filings.
The Justice Department has stated that Cadman potentially faces a sentence of up to 13 years in prison and will appear in federal court “in the coming days.”
Rodriguez Abused Search Warrants
According to prosecutors, Iza had contracted Rodriguez, but Rodriguez himself admitted in a plea agreement to misleading a judge to secure a search warrant in July 2022 for a client unrelated to Iza, despite Iza employing him for private security.
He falsely stated the warrant was connected to a robbery investigation, but in reality, it was an effort to obtain GPS data of the victim’s phone for the benefit of his client.
Rodriguez then shared this location data with Eric Chase Saavedra, an LASD deputy also under Iza’s employ, who pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy against rights and filing a false tax return.
The Justice Department alleges that “LASD deputies and other involved parties utilized information derived from the court-authorized search warrant to harass, threaten, and intimidate the victim.”
Rodriguez is slated for sentencing on Nov. 10 and could receive a maximum prison term of 10 years.
Saavedra remains free on a $50,000 bond and is facing a potential sentence of up to 13 years. The Justice Department anticipates that he will be sentenced “in the coming months.”
Iza’s “Pawns”
Iza boasted about paying the deputies as much as $280,000 monthly, referring to them as his “pawns,” according to an FBI affidavit submitted in a Los Angeles federal court in September.
The FBI revealed another instance where Iza used police information in an attempt to coerce an unnamed victim into surrendering a laptop containing cryptocurrency. The victim received threatening messages containing his information pulled from a police database, including photos of his family and vehicle.
Iza’s former girlfriend, Iris Ramaya Au, also agreed to plead guilty to submitting a false tax return “for failing to declare over $2.6 million in illegally obtained profits derived from her then-boyfriend’s criminal enterprises,” according to the Justice Department in March.
Related: FOMO, lax rules are fueling the crypto crime supercycle
Au created shell corporations and opened bank accounts for these firms at Iza’s direction, then utilized the illicit funds to pay approximately $1 million to LASD deputies, as well as to purchase or lease luxury real estate, vehicles, jewelry, and apparel.
Josef Sadat, Iza’s lawyer, told Cointelegraph in September, before Iza’s guilty plea, that the charges “are the opposite of his true inner character” and that he “did not develop many healthy relationships” due to spending “the majority of his life behind a computer.”
Sadat claimed that the wealth Iza gained from his cryptocurrency platform attracted “the worst type of blood-sucking characters that Southern California has to offer.”
Iza’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Dec. 15, and he faces a potential sentence of up to 35 years in prison.
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