On Monday, September 14, 2026, Patch reported that a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy has been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for helping a self-styled cryptocurrency “godfather” intimidate and harass his business rivals.
U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson handed down the sentence to Christopher Cadman, 34, of Fullerton, who was also ordered to pay $25,000 in restitution. Cadman pleaded guilty in August 2025 to conspiracy against rights and to filing a false tax return, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Cadman is the latest of five former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies convicted for their roles in a scheme orchestrated by Adam Iza, 26, a Beverly Hills and Newport Beach man who marketed himself as a cryptocurrency mogul known as “The Godfather.” Prosecutors said Iza paid off-duty and on-duty sheriff’s personnel to act as his personal enforcers against people he considered enemies or business rivals.
Court documents describe a confrontation in August 2021
Court documents describe a confrontation in August 2021 at Iza’s Bel Air mansion, where Cadman and then-Deputy Scott Simpkins met with a man who had a dispute with Iza. Simpkins held the victim at gunpoint during the encounter, and the man wired roughly $25,000 to an Iza-controlled account shortly afterward, prosecutors said.
The following month, Cadman helped set up a traffic stop in Paramount that led to the same victim’s arrest, part of a broader scheme involving Iza and other officers to target him, according to prosecutors. Cadman received cash payments for his role in the operation, court records show.
Another former deputy, Michael Coberg, was sentenced in March to five years and three months in prison for his own part in targeting Iza’s rivals, including helping lure a victim from Miami to Los Angeles for a fabricated drug arrest. Prosecutors said Coberg later texted Cadman to thank him for arranging the Paramount stop, remarking that Iza “enjoyed it.” Iza reportedly photographed and recorded the arrest and used the images to taunt his rival afterward.
Separately, Cadman admitted to failing to report
Separately, Cadman admitted to failing to report at least $40,500 in income on his 2021 tax return, filed in February 2022, leaving him owing about $11,000 in federal taxes for that year.
Iza has been held in federal custody since September 2024. He pleaded guilty in January 2025 to conspiracy against rights, wire fraud, and tax evasion, and is scheduled to be sentenced on October 5. He is already serving a 15-year federal sentence stemming from an attempted Bitcoin robbery and kidnapping in Connecticut in August 2024.
In a related case, Iza’s former girlfriend, Iris Ramaya Au, 37, of Irvine, pleaded guilty in March 2025 to filing a false tax return after failing to report more than $2.6 million she received through Iza’s criminal enterprise. She faces up to three years in federal prison at a sentencing hearing expected in the coming weeks.
