Adam Iza, a 26-year-old who styled himself “The Godfather,” has been sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for a fraud scheme that prosecutors said extracted more than $37 million from Meta, alongside tax evasion and the misuse of off-duty law-enforcement officers.
According to CoinDesk, U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson also ordered Iza to pay $23.4 million in restitution. The prison term will run concurrently with a separate 15-year sentence imposed in Connecticut last month for Iza’s role in an attempted Bitcoin robbery in August 2024.
How the Meta scheme worked
Prosecutors said Iza obtained access to Meta Business Manager accounts and the credit lines connected to them. He then sold that access to advertising companies, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The arrangement allegedly resulted in Meta billing clients for advertising they had not purchased, followed by refunds to those clients. Prosecutors said Iza received at least $36.4 million in income from the scheme, while the overall fraud caused more than $37 million in losses to Meta.
The case also involved the movement of business income through crypto custodians. Iza admitted transferring corporate income linked to the fraud to those custodians while concealing his ownership of a company called Zort, the Justice Department said.
Crypto custodians generally hold digital assets or related accounts on behalf of customers. Their appearance in the case illustrates how cryptocurrency-related financial infrastructure can form part of a broader alleged fraud and tax-evasion operation, rather than being limited to transactions involving digital tokens themselves.
Iza pleaded guilty in January 2025 to conspiracy against rights, wire fraud and one count of tax evasion. Prosecutors estimated that the scheme resulted in a $13.3 million tax loss to the Internal Revenue Service.
Use of former deputies in personal disputes
The case extended beyond financial conduct. Between 2021 and 2022, prosecutors said Iza hired off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to obtain confidential law-enforcement information, personal data and search warrants.
The information was allegedly used to track and harass people Iza regarded as rivals or with whom he had disputes. The five former Los Angeles County deputies involved have since been convicted, according to the Justice Department’s statement.
During sentencing, prosecutors said people with significant financial resources could not buy access to confidential databases, investigative tools, warrants, arrests, badges or firearms for use in private disputes. The statement underscored that the alleged conduct involved the misuse of official resources as well as financial deception.
Iza’s 78-month sentence therefore covers a case combining wire fraud, tax evasion and the use of law-enforcement access. Because the term is concurrent with his separate 15-year sentence, the new punishment does not add 78 months on top of that longer term.
Broader crypto-related enforcement backdrop
Iza’s sentencing comes amid other criminal cases involving cryptocurrency businesses, accounts and customers. A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 12 years in prison last month after allegedly impersonating Coinbase customer-service representatives and deceiving about 100 people into believing their accounts had been hacked.
In a separate case, Las Vegas businessman Brent Kovar was found guilty in August of operating a crypto Ponzi scheme. He was accused of defrauding at least 400 investors of $24 million.
These cases involve different alleged methods and defendants. Together with Iza’s case, however, they show the range of conduct appearing in cryptocurrency-related prosecutions, from impersonation and investment fraud to the use of crypto custodians in concealing business income.
Current crypto market picture
Moneyiar market data at 10:04 a.m. on October 7, 2026, showed Bitcoin at $83,706.54, down 2.66% over 24 hours and nearly unchanged over seven days, with a 0.04% decline.
- Cardano was trading at $0.2553, down 7.73% over 24 hours but up 3.12% over seven days.
- Monad stood at $0.02665, falling 5.91% in 24 hours and 3.81% over seven days.
- Sentient was priced at $0.02540, down 0.51% over 24 hours but up 20.01% over seven days.
The market figures describe current asset prices and recent performance; they do not alter the facts of the criminal case or indicate any connection between those assets and Iza’s sentencing.
