LOS ANGELES, CA — A former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was sentenced Monday to 21 months in federal prison for intimidating and harassing people involved in disputes with a cryptocurrency businessman who referred to himself as "The Godfather," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Christopher Cadman, 34, of Fullerton, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson to pay $25,000 in restitution.
Cadman pleaded guilty in August 2025 to conspiracy against rights and subscribing to a false tax return. He is one of five former Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies convicted in connection with criminal activity involving Adam Iza, 26, a Beverly Hills and Newport Beach man who styled himself as a cryptocurrency mogul.
Iza hired sheriff's officials to act as personal enforcers against people he viewed as enemies or business rivals, prosecutors said.
According to court documents, Cadman and then-Deputy Scott Simpkins confronted one of Iza's rivals in August 2021 at Iza's Bel Air mansion. Simpkins held the man at gunpoint during the meeting, and the victim transferred about $25,000 to an account controlled by Iza immediately afterward, prosecutors said.
The following month, Cadman helped arrange a traffic stop in Paramount that led to the same victim's arrest, according to prosecutors.
The arrest was part of a scheme involving Iza and other law enforcement officers to target the rival. Cadman received cash payments while working for Iza, court records show.
Former LASD deputy Michael Coberg, who was sentenced in March to five years and three months in federal prison, also participated in schemes targeting Iza's rivals.
In one case, Coberg and others helped lure another Iza rival to Los Angeles from Miami and set him up for a false drug arrest, according to prosecutors.
Coberg later texted Cadman thanking him for facilitating the traffic stop and said "the kid enjoyed it," referring to Iza, according to prosecutors. Iza photographed and recorded the arrest and later taunted his rival with images from the encounter.
Cadman also admitted failing to report at least $40,500 in income on his 2021 federal tax return, which he filed in February 2022. Prosecutors said he owed about $11,000 in federal taxes for that year.
Iza has been 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 Oct. 5.
He is already serving a 15-year federal prison sentence for his role in 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 obtained through Iza's criminal activities, prosecutors said.
Au faces up to three years in federal prison at a sentencing hearing expected in the coming weeks.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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