Adam Iza sentenced to 78 months for Meta fraud and hiring ex-deputies

Adam Iza, the man who went by the nickname “Crypto Godfather,” was sentenced in federal court on October 5, 2026, to 78 months in prison. That is a little more than six years for a rap sheet that reads like three separate crime dramas stitched together.

The charges covered wire fraud tied to roughly $37 million siphoned through Meta’s advertising systems, tax evasion, and conspiracy against rights. That last one stems from Iza putting former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies on his payroll to lean on people he considered adversaries.

A Meta hustle, a tax bill, and a payroll full of badges

Iza entered a guilty plea in January 2025 and has been in federal custody since September 2024. The new 78-month term will run concurrently with a 15-year sentence he already received in a separate Connecticut case.

Concurrent means the sentences overlap rather than stack. So the six-plus years largely sits inside the longer Connecticut term, not on top of it.

The core of the federal case was a scheme that ran from December 2020 to September 2024. Iza hijacked Meta Platforms Inc. business-manager accounts and sold access to them to advertising firms.

The scheme generated approximately $37 million in illegal proceeds. In his plea agreement, Iza admitted to at least $36.36 million in gross income.

He did not, it turns out, share much of that with the IRS. His unreported income from 2020 to 2023 caused more than $13.2 million in tax losses to the government.

To hide the money, Iza routed income through crypto custodians and shell companies.

The deputies on retainer

The most cinematic part of the case involves who Iza hired for muscle. He admitted to employing five former LASD deputies to extort and intimidate people.

At its peak, that crew cost him around $100,000 per month.

The arrangement has already produced fallout for the deputies themselves. Several former law enforcement personnel connected to his operation have been convicted, and some have already been sentenced.

Iza’s former girlfriend, Iris Rabaya Au, was sentenced to 18 months for failing to report more than $2.6 million in gains from the scheme.

The Connecticut case and the Bitcoin connection

The 15-year Connecticut sentence is the heavier one, and its origin is darker. That case involved Iza planning a violent kidnapping attempt aimed at the parents of a Bitcoin thief.

Between the Bitcoin-linked kidnapping plot and the crypto custodians used to bury his Meta proceeds, digital assets ran through more than one chapter of his criminal career.