Adam Iza, the self-styled Godfather, gets 78 months for a $37m Meta fraud partly hidden in crypto
Serguey Asael Shinder1 min readAdam Iza, 26, who called himself "The Godfather", was sentenced in Los Angeles on 5 October to 78 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $23,402,766 in restitution, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced.
The crimes. Iza pleaded guilty in January 2025 to conspiracy against rights, wire fraud and tax evasion.
- The Meta fraud. From December 2020 to September 2024 he fraudulently gained access to Meta business manager accounts and their lines of credit and sold that access to advertising companies. Meta clients were billed for ads they had not bought; Meta refunded them and took the loss. From 2020 through 2022 about $37 million flowed into his companies' accounts.
- The tax evasion, and the crypto. His plea agreement says he received at least $36,360,844 in gross income from the scheme between 2020 and 2023, causing a $13,286,152 tax loss. He filed no corporate returns and hid his ownership of his company, Zort, partly by transferring corporate income to cryptocurrency custodians.
- The deputies. From August 2021 to April 2022 he hired off-duty Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies, who obtained confidential law-enforcement data, personal information and search warrants to track and harass people he was in disputes with. Five former deputies now stand convicted.
The bitcoin robbery. Iza has been in custody since September 2024. The new sentence runs concurrently with a 15-year term imposed last month in Connecticut for his involvement in an attempted bitcoin robbery the month before his arrest.
The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated. An associate, Iris Rabaya Au, was sentenced in September to 18 months and ordered to forfeit luxury cars, handbags and three "Godfather" sculptures.