Eric Chase Saavedra, 42, a former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division deputy, was sentenced Monday to 21 months in federal jail after pleading responsible to conspiracy in opposition to rights and making and subscribing to a false tax return.
US District Choose Percy Anderson additionally ordered him to pay $90,984 in restitution to the IRS for revenue he hid whereas operating personal safety for Adam Iza, the self-styled Crypto Godfather now serving a separate 15-year sentence for a Connecticut bitcoin theft and kidnapping.
Who’s Eric Saavedra? Safety Agency Fed Adam Iza’s Intimidation Marketing campaign
Saavedra based Saavedra & Associates to supply personal safety and was employed by Iza for round the clock safety at $100,000 monthly from August 2021 to March 2022 and once more from July 2024 till Iza’s arrest in September. He staffed a minimum of two guards and sometimes labored shifts himself.
In his plea settlement, Saavedra admitted to misusing his departmental credentials to entry private details about people concerned with Iza. He fabricated a search warrant to intimidate a goal into paying for safety and misled a narcotics detective, resulting in a drug raid on an extortion sufferer.
He additionally falsely claimed to want a warrant to trace a person’s cellphone, which resulted in armed people making an attempt to invade that residence. This highlights the hazards of utilizing legislation enforcement for personal acquire, a priority raised in different circumstances involving crypto crimes.
Throughout sentencing, Saavedra acknowledged betraying public belief, and the Sheriff’s Division described his actions as a severe breach of its values. Prosecutors acknowledged that his conduct undermines confidence in lawful authority. Saavedra separated from LASD on March 13, 2025.
A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who used police databases to acquire private data for a felony shopper has been sentenced to 21 months in federal jail.
Eric Saavedra equipped details about folks in disputes with self-styled crypto businessman Adam…— Subsequent Block Information (@nextblocknews_) September 29, 2026
Obtained a Intestine Feeling? It Might Pay Out Huge on Polymarket
The Iza Instances Run on Separate Tracks
Saavedra is the fifth former deputy sentenced within the broader case centered on Iza, following Michael Coberg, Scott Simpkins, David Rodriguez, and Christopher Cadman.
That sample of LASD corruption, sworn officers moonlighting as enforcers for a single personal shopper, is what distinguishes this case from odd monetary fraud; it’s a sequence of officers with badge entry changing that entry right into a industrial service for one man’s disputes.
Iza is a separate procedural matter. He’s at present serving a 15-year federal sentence tied to an tried theft of bitcoin and a kidnapping in Connecticut in August 2024, and he’s individually awaiting sentencing within the Central District of California on prices of conspiracy in opposition to rights, wire fraud, and tax evasion.
The 2 proceedings are distinct circumstances in several jurisdictions, regardless that each hint again to the identical self-described “Godfather” persona. Enforcement companies have pursued comparable overlaps between monetary fraud and arranged intimidation elsewhere, together with networks tied to alleged crypto cash laundering that prosecutors have linked to Marset.
For retail merchants watching the crypto-crime beat, the throughline isn’t value motion; it’s the reminder that Bitcoin crime circumstances more and more contain typical coercion (badges, warrants, employed muscle) layered on high of digital property, not simply trade hacks or smart-contract exploits. Saavedra’s sentence closes the LASD chapter of the Iza saga; Iza’s personal California sentencing stays the open query.
Earn $50 and Enter $300K Prize Draw on EdgeX
The publish Who Is Eric Saavedra? Crypto Mafia Boss Adam Iza’s Corrupt Police Criminal appeared first on Cryptonews.