Two deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have admitted to abusing their law enforcement authority to assist private security clients—among them a jailed crypto extortionist known as “The Godfather.”
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, David Anthony Rodriguez agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy against rights, while Christopher Michael Cadman struck a deal to plead guilty to both conspiracy against rights and filing a false tax return.
The DOJ stated that the deputies exploited their official positions while moonlighting as private security for off-duty clients, including Adam Iza—also known as Ahmed Faiq and “The Godfather”—who operated the cryptocurrency platform Zort.
In January, Adam Iza pleaded guilty to conspiracy against rights, wire fraud, and tax evasion after prosecutors revealed he had paid three Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies—including Rodriguez and Cadman—to illegally file search warrants and access police databases in order to extort at least one victim for their cryptocurrency.
Cadman assisted in threatening a victim who was held at gunpoint
Prosecutors say that in August 2021, Christopher Cadman and another deputy—identified only as “LASD Deputy 6”—intimidated and threatened one of Adam Iza’s rivals.
According to the Department of Justice, Deputy 6 held the victim at gunpoint during a meeting at Iza’s Bel Air mansion office. The victim then transferred approximately $25,000 to Iza’s bank account in response to the threat.
The following month, in September 2021, Cadman helped organize a traffic stop and arrest of the same victim, again acting on Iza’s behalf.
In addition, Cadman failed to report at least $40,500 in income on his 2021 tax return.
He now faces up to 13 years in prison and is expected to appear in federal court in the coming days, the Justice Department said.
Rodriguez used search warrants to locate the victim
Prosecutors revealed that Adam Iza had hired David Anthony Rodriguez as private security, but Rodriguez admitted in a plea agreement to lying to a judge in July 2022 to obtain a search warrant—not for Iza, but for another client.
Rodriguez falsely claimed the warrant was part of a robbery investigation, when in fact it was used to track a victim’s phone via GPS on behalf of his client. He then shared the victim’s location with Eric Chase Saavedra, another LASD deputy who was also working for Iza.
According to the Justice Department, Rodriguez and other co-conspirators used the information from the court-approved warrant to harass, threaten, and intimidate the victim.
Rodriguez is scheduled to be sentenced on November 10 and faces up to 10 years in prison. Saavedra, who pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy against rights and filing a false tax return, is currently free on a $50,000 bond and could face up to 13 years in prison. He is expected to be sentenced in the coming months.
Iza reportedly referred to the deputies as his “pawns,” according to prosecutors
According to an FBI affidavit filed in a Los Angeles federal court in September, Iza bragged about paying the deputies as much as $280,000 per month and referred to them as his “pawns.”
In another incident, the FBI reported that Iza used police data to pressure an unnamed victim into handing over a laptop used to store cryptocurrency. The victim received threatening messages containing personal information pulled from a police database, along with photos of his family and car.
Iza’s former girlfriend, Iris Ramaya Au, has also agreed to plead guilty to filing a false tax return for failing to report over $2.6 million in illicit income she obtained through Iza’s criminal operations, according to a March statement from the Justice Department.
At Iza’s direction, Au created shell companies and opened bank accounts under their names. She then used the illegal funds to pay roughly $1 million to LASD deputies and to finance luxury real estate, vehicles, jewelry, and designer clothing.
Iza’s attorney, Josef Sadat, told Cointelegraph in September—prior to Iza’s guilty plea—that the charges were “the opposite of his true inner character,” claiming Iza had few healthy relationships because he “spent the majority of his life behind a computer.” Sadat also said Iza’s wealth from his crypto platform attracted “the worst type of blood-sucking characters that Southern California has to offer.”
Iza is scheduled to be sentenced on December 15 and faces up to 35 years in prison.
