Adam Iza, the 26-year-old who called himself “The Godfather,” has been sentenced to 78 months in prison for hiring off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to harass people involved in disputes with him, defrauding Meta of more than $37 million, and concealing the proceeds through cryptocurrency custodians to evade taxes.

U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson also ordered Iza to pay $23,402,766 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Iza pleaded guilty in January 2025 to conspiracy against rights, wire fraud and tax evasion — the first of those, conspiracy against rights, is a federal civil-rights statute. He has been in custody since September 2024.

The new sentence runs concurrently with the 15-year term imposed on Iza last month in Connecticut for an attempted Bitcoin robbery. As a result, the 78-month sentence does not add to the time he will serve; its practical effect lies in the restitution order and the three federal convictions now on his record.

Self-proclaimed ‘Godfather’ sentenced to over 6 years in prison for fraud, tax evasion, and using LASD deputies to torment his opponents — US Attorney L.A. (@USAO_LosAngeles) October 5, 2026

Between August 2021 and April 2022, Iza hired off-duty deputies as personal security. Under his plea agreement, he admitted conspiring with them to obtain confidential law enforcement records and personal data about people with whom he had financial or other disputes. The group also sought court-authorized search warrants to locate those individuals, while the deputies intimidated and threatened them. The scheme worked because the deputies kept the tools of their jobs off duty: access to confidential records and the ability to invoke the warrant process — the machinery of official investigations, borrowed for private ends.

The Justice Department said five former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies have been convicted in connection with work they performed for Iza. Eric Chase Saavedra, 42, a former federal task force officer who established the security company that supplied the deputies, 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, was sentenced to 18 months for obstructing an investigation into a $25,000 extortion at Iza’s Bel Air mansion. David Anthony Rodriguez, 45, received a one-year sentence for submitting a false search warrant application.

“People with money cannot buy ‘warrants, arrests, badges, or firearms for use in private disputes,’” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

The $37 million Meta fraud

The fraud scheme was separate from the conduct involving the deputies. Beginning in December 2020, Iza obtained access to Meta Business Manager accounts and their associated lines of credit, then sold that access to companies. The access itself was the commodity: whoever controls an ad account tied to a credit line can run campaigns billed to the account holder rather than to the person spending. Meta clients were charged for advertising they had not purchased. After the unauthorized billing was discovered, Meta refunded the clients and absorbed the loss.

Approximately $37 million was deposited 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. He did not file any corporate tax returns.

To conceal the proceeds, Iza hid his ownership of Zort, his cryptocurrency trading platform; arranged for a co-schemer to purchase personal items with the money; and transferred corporate income to cryptocurrency custodians. With no corporate returns filed and ownership obscured behind a trading platform and third-party custodians, the income sat outside the paper trail tax authorities normally rely on.

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 forfeit a collection of luxury and high-performance vehicles, designer handbags, three “Godfather” sculptures and other assets.

With sentencing now complete for Iza, five former deputies and his former girlfriend, what remains is collection of the $23,402,766 restitution order.