Former L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Sentenced to Nearly 2 Years in Prison for Violating Rights on Crypto-Criminal’s Behalf, Cheating on Taxes
LOS ANGELES / Monday, September 28, 2026 – A former deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) was sentenced today to 21 months in federal prison for abusing his law enforcement powers to threaten and intimidate a now-imprisoned, self-styled cryptocurrency businessman’s perceived adversaries, to advance that criminal’s interests, and for concealing from the IRS more than $373,000 in income he obtained from that criminal.
Eric Chase Saavedra, 42, of Chino, who once served as an LASD detective and federal task-force officer, was sentenced by United States District Judge Percy Anderson, who also ordered him to pay $90,984 in restitution.
Saavedra pleaded guilty in February 2025 to one count of conspiracy against rights and one count of false subscription to a tax return.
As part of his plea agreement, Saavedra agreed to forfeit several items he purchased as part of the conspiracy, including 32 Louis Vuitton bags, 27 pairs of Gucci shoes, five Louis Vuitton wallets, and a money-counting machine.
According to court documents, Adam Iza, 26, who resided in Beverly Hills and Newport Beach, was a self-styled cryptocurrency businessman who hired off-duty LASD deputies to act as his personal enforcers against his enemies. As part of the conspiracy to violate civil rights, Iza had the deputies assist him in carrying out extortion, intimidation, setting people up for arrest, and abuse of legal process.
One of the deputies Iza employed was Saavedra, who was assigned to LASD’s Operation Safe Streets Bureau and served as a federal task force officer assigned to the United States Marshals Service’s Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force.
Saavedra founded a private security company, Saavedra & Associates LLC, which provided private security for its clients and often employed active LASD deputies and other law enforcement officers.
From August 2021 to March 2022, Iza – who then lived in a Bel Air mansion – hired Saavedra & Associates to provide him round-the-clock private security at a typical cost of $100,000 per month. Iza hired the company again from July 2024 until Iza’s arrest in September 2024.
Starting in the fall of 2021, Saavedra illegally and regularly used his LASD credentials to access sensitive law enforcement databases to obtain personal identifiable information (PII) for Iza, including PII for people with whom Iza had personal or business disputes, their associates, and their family members.
Saavedra knew he was not authorized under LASD rules to access this information for non-law enforcement matters or to share it with private clients. He did so because he wanted to impress Iza with his access to law enforcement information and to continue to receive lucrative business from Iza, according to court documents.
Saavedra used his powers as a sworn law enforcement officer to improperly obtain court-authorized search warrants related to individuals with whom Iza had disputes, including a warrant to search an individual’s residence that Saavedra helped facilitate and a warrant to obtain location information associated with another individual that Saavedra directly obtained.
Iza, Saavedra and others used confidential information that the LASD deputies obtained in their official capacities to locate, intimidate, harass, threaten and extort individuals with whom Iza had disputes and their associates, according to court documents. They also used Telegram and other encrypted communications apps to avoid law enforcement detection.
For example, in late 2021 or early 2022, Iza – believing a victim possessed a laptop computer containing more than $100 million in cryptocurrency – discussed and agreed that Saavedra would obtain a search warrant for GPS location associated with that victim’s telephone number. In January 2022, Saavedra applied for and obtained a search warrant under false pretenses from a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. In an affidavit supporting the search warrant application, Saavedra falsely stated that the victim’s telephone number was associated with a suspect in a firearms investigation.
After securing the illegal warrant, Saavedra tracked down the victim and provided the victim’s address to Iza. In March 2022, Iza caused three armed individuals to try to force entry into the victim’s home to steal the laptop. The individuals fled after the victim fired a gunshot in their direction. Afterward, Iza sent the victim a video of the attempted home invasion robbery.
Saavedra further admitted to receiving approximately $373,146 in unreported income and subscribed to a false tax return for 2021.
Iza, who has been in federal custody since September 2024, pleaded guilty in January 2025 to one count of conspiracy against rights, one count of wire fraud, and one count of tax evasion. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for October 5 before Judge Anderson.
Iza is serving a 15-year federal prison sentence for his involvement in an attempted robbery of Bitcoin and a kidnapping in Connecticut in August 2024.
Saavedra is the fifth former LASD deputy to be sentenced in this matter. The other four former LASD deputies are:
- Michael David Coberg, 45, of Eastvale, is serving a 63-month federal prison sentence for helping Iza extort a rival and arranging the sham illegal drug possession arrest of another adversary in Paramount in 2021. Judge Anderson sentenced Coberg on March 16.
- Scott Allen Simpkins, 34, of Brea, was sentenced on July 13 to 18 months in federal prison for obstructing a federal investigation into Iza’s extortion of $25,000 from a party planner at Iza’s Bel Air mansion.
- David Anthony Rodriguez, 45, of La Verne, was sentenced on July 20 to one year in federal prison and who had worked for Iza as a private security guard, pleaded guilty to submitting a false search warrant application to a state court judge on behalf of a different client.
- Christopher Michael Cadman, 34, of Fullerton, was sentenced on September 14 to 21 months in federal prison and was ordered to pay $25,000 in restitution for abusing his status as a law enforcement officer to threaten and intimidate adversaries of a now-imprisoned, self-proclaimed cryptocurrency businessman, and for cheating on his taxes.
Relatedly, Judge Anderson on September 21 sentenced Iris Rabaya Au, 37, of Irvine, to 18 months in federal prison and ordered her to pay $1,484,343 in restitution for failing to report more than $2.6 million in ill-gotten gains she obtained via the criminal activities of Iza, her former boyfriend.
The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this matter. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department provided assistance.
Assistant United States Attorney Maxwell K. Coll of the National Security Division prosecuted this case.
Contact
Ciaran McEvoy
Public Information Officer
ciaran.mcevoy@usdoj.gov
(213) 894-4465
Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California
