'Crypto Godfather' Adam Iza sentenced to 78 months over $37M Meta ad fraud
In brief
- Adam Iza was sentenced to 78 months on October 5, 2026, Crypto Briefing reported.
- Wire fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy against rights made up the charges, per Crypto Briefing.
- Iza hijacked Meta business-manager accounts and sold access to advertising firms.
- Iza admitted employing five former LASD deputies to extort and intimidate people.
- The 78-month term runs concurrently with a 15-year Connecticut sentence, per Crypto Briefing.
How the Meta scheme worked
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. It wasn't small. The scheme generated approximately $37 million in illegal proceeds, and in his plea agreement Iza admitted to at least $36.36 million in gross income, Crypto Briefing reported.
The money trail ran through crypto.
Iza routed income through crypto custodians and shell companies to hide it. His unreported income from 2020 to 2023 caused more than $13.2 million in tax losses to the government, according to the plea figures Crypto Briefing reported.
Former deputies on the payroll
The conspiracy-against-rights charge is the one that stands out. It stems from Iza putting former Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies on his payroll to pressure people he considered adversaries. In his guilty plea, Iza admitted to employing five former LASD deputies to extort and intimidate people (at its peak, that crew cost him around $100,000 per month).
Several former law enforcement personnel connected to the operation have been convicted, and some have already been sentenced, according to Crypto Briefing. 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, Crypto Briefing reported.
Concurrent with a Connecticut term
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'd already received in a separate Connecticut case, Crypto Briefing reported, so the two are served at the same time. That case, per Crypto Briefing, involved Iza planning a violent kidnapping attempt aimed at the parents of a Bitcoin thief.
