Who Is Eric Saavedra? Crypto Mafia Boss Adam Iza’s Corrupt Police Crook
Eric Chase Saavedra, 42, a former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy, was sentenced Monday to 21 months in federal jail after pleading responsible to conspiracy towards rights and making and subscribing to a false tax return.
US District Judge Percy Anderson additionally ordered him to pay $90,984 in restitution to the IRS for earnings he hid whereas operating non-public safety for Adam Iza, the self-styled Crypto Godfather now serving a separate 15-year sentence for a Connecticut bitcoin theft and kidnapping.
Who is Eric Saavedra? Security Firm Fed Adam Iza’s Intimidation Campaign
Saavedra based Saavedra & Associates to offer non-public safety and was employed by Iza for round the clock safety at $100,000 per 30 days 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 trying to invade that house. This highlights the hazards of utilizing regulation enforcement for personal achieve, a priority raised in different instances involving crypto crimes.
During sentencing, Saavedra acknowledged betraying public belief, and the Sheriff’s Department described his actions as a severe breach of its values. Prosecutors said that his conduct undermines confidence in lawful authority. Saavedra separated from LASD on March 13, 2025.
Got a Gut Feeling? It Could Pay Out Big on Polymarket
The Iza Cases 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 non-public shopper, is what distinguishes this case from extraordinary monetary fraud; it’s a sequence of officers with badge entry changing that entry right into a business service for one man’s disputes.
Iza is a separate procedural matter. He is at the moment 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 costs of conspiracy towards rights, wire fraud, and tax evasion.
The two proceedings are distinct instances in several jurisdictions, despite the fact that each hint again to the identical self-described “Godfather” persona. Enforcement companies have pursued related overlaps between monetary fraud and arranged intimidation elsewhere, together with networks tied to alleged crypto money 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 instances more and more contain standard coercion (badges, warrants, employed muscle) layered on high of digital property, not simply change 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 Crook appeared first on Cryptonews.
