Former LA Sheriff’s Deputy Sentenced for Cover-Up in Crypto Extortion

U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson also ordered Simpkins to pay a $10,000 fine. The former deputy, who resigned from the department’s Special Enforcement Bureau following his felony plea in March, provided security at the Bel Air home of Adam Iza alongside another former deputy, Christopher Michael Cadman. Prosecutors established that Iza placed 9mm rounds on his desk and spun a bullet while demanding a $25,000 payment from the victim. Simpkins and Cadman subsequently escorted the victim off the property, receiving $1,400 each for the job.

Adam Iza remains in federal custody facing multiple charges, including wire fraud and tax evasion in California, as well as a separate conviction in Connecticut for a 2024 kidnapping plot. In the latter case, Iza and his brother, Saif Faiq, orchestrated a scheme to extort cryptocurrency by kidnapping the parents of Veer Chetal, who himself faces sentencing for the theft of 4,100 bitcoin. Faiq and six hired accomplices have already entered guilty pleas for their roles in the violent Danbury, Connecticut abduction.