A Los Angeles judge sentenced former LAPD officer Eric Halem to concurrent life terms for kidnapping and robbery, rejecting his request for a new trial.

Halem’s group entered the victim’s apartment using an access code obtained from a conspirator who had rented the unit.

Halem still faces charges related to insurance fraud and a separate crypto robbery that allegedly took place days earlier.

A former Los Angeles police officer was sentenced Tuesday to life plus 15 years in state prison for a home invasion in which $350,000 in Bitcoin was taken from a teenager, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Eric Halem, 38, was found guilty in March of kidnapping and robbery after a two-week trial, with jurors returning a verdict in under a day. Superior Court Judge Mildred Escobedo rejected a late bid for a new trial before imposing concurrent life terms, saying the evidence showed a man prepared to use violence out of "sheer and utter greed." According to the district attorney's office, Halem will be eligible for parole after seven years.

Prosecutors said Halem and three other men entered a Koreatown apartment at about 2:30 a.m. on December 28, 2024, handcuffed two victims, moved funds from their cryptocurrency account, and took cash and jewellery. The men arrived in a Range Rover and a Lamborghini Urus registered to Halem's car rental business, wore vests identifying them as police, and entered with an access code supplied by a conspirator who had rented the apartment.

Halem had left the department nearly two years earlier after 13 years of service, although he was still a reserve officer at the time. The case drew added attention because it combined a high-value crypto theft with police impersonation, a tactic that can make victims more likely to comply quickly.

The 17-year-old victim, who testified under his first name only, had built his holdings partly by scamming others. Escobedo said that did not excuse the crime, and described a former officer masquerading as police to rob someone as "heinous and egregious."

Halem's family disputes the ruling. His mother, Randi, told the paper that she believed the truth had not come out at trial and called the outcome "a miscarriage of the law."

Luis Banuelos, Pierre Louis and Mishael Mann were each charged in August 2025 with kidnapping for ransom, first-degree residential robbery and home invasion robbery in concert. All have pleaded not guilty, have not yet gone to trial, and maintain their innocence.

Halem also faces additional charges over insurance fraud and a second crypto robbery that prosecutors say took place days before the Koreatown raid. Those allegations remain unproven.

Fake badges, and real ones

So-called "wrench attacks," in which criminals use violence to coerce crypto holders, are increasing globally. CertiK verified 52 wrench attacks worldwide in the first half of 2026, with recorded losses of $124.1 million. Remy St. Felix was sentenced to 47 years in September 2024 for running a violent crypto home-invasion ring, which was then the longest sentence handed down in a U.S. crypto case.

Impersonating police has become a recurring tactic in crypto-related crimes. In March, three men posing as officers held a French couple at knifepoint and forced a $1 million Bitcoin transfer. In June, a 32-year-old was indicted in Nancy over a similar attack on a couple whose holdings had been exposed in a data breach. In Ukraine, prosecutors in May accused four police officers and a civilian of kidnapping crypto entrepreneurs at gunpoint and extorting $2.2 million using fabricated debt claims.