SofiaandClaude Opus 4.8
ba7529ea50
Self-contained bundle to continue the case-summary enrichment pass (70/256 done). sources/ holds the 364 .txt dossiers; scripts use relative paths. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018FJRciSWZc9HftS2edbzBf
258 lines
27 KiB
Plaintext
258 lines
27 KiB
Plaintext
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CASE 106 | "E.Z." | November 21, 2021 | USA
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DATABASE RECORD
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id 106
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date November 21, 2021
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original_date November 21, 2021
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year 2021
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month 11
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quarter 2021-Q4
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victim "E.Z."
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location Los Angeles, California
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country USA
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scenario Authority Misuse
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description Attempted robbery & kidnapping at gunpoint by business associate
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kidnappings 0
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violence_torture 0
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drugs_alcohol 0
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weapons 1
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theft 0
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life_taken 0
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money_wanted (null)
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coin_type Crypto
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reports LA Times
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notes Article(s) cover a series of occurrences where crooked cops (paid by Adam Iza) harassed, home-invaded, and car-followed E.Z. (Enzo Zelocchi) to intimidate
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has_processed_date 1
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created_at 2025-11-13 05:44:45
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AI SUMMARY [generated at bulk import, NOT verified against sources]
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**Victim:** "E.Z."
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**Attackers:** Individuals misusing authority
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**Attack Method:** Authority Misuse
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**Violence Used:** Firearms
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**Crypto Stolen:** Undisclosed amount of Crypto
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**Status:** Investigation ongoing
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LINKED SOURCES
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[url] https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-17/los-angeles-deputy-crypto-mogul-crimes
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NOTES ON THIS FILE
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* matched to sheet row 107: exact match on victim + year, unique on both sides
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ARTICLE 1
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Source LA Times
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URL https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-17/los-angeles-deputy-crypto-mogul-crimes
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Origin reported_K&R sheet, row 107, column "Articles"
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Length 12,844 chars
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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‘A thief and a crooked cop’: L.A. deputy committed crimes for crypto mogul, feds say
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The U.S. Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles
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A longtime detective in the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department’s anti-gang unit has admitted to extortion and other abuses of power while working for a crypto mogul, court filings show. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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Eric Chase Saavedra, an active L.A. County deputy and former federal task force officer, agreed this week to plead guilty to conspiracy and tax crimes.
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Saavedra carried out the criminal bidding of Adam Iza, a crypto mogul known as ‘The Godfather,’ including obtaining false search warrants on his behalf.
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Iza, 24, has also agreed to plead guilty to federal charges, including wire fraud.
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A longtime detective in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s anti-gang unit has admitted to violating the civil rights of multiple victims through intimidation, illegal search warrants and other abuses of power, according to plea agreements filed this week.
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Eric Chase Saavedra, an L.A. County deputy and former federal task force officer, agreed this week to plead guilty to conspiracy and tax crimes tied to his role in carrying out the criminal bidding of Adam Iza, a crypto mogul known as “The Godfather,” officials said. Saavedra faces up to 13 years in prison.
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Iza, 24, has agreed to plead guilty to similar charges, in addition to wire fraud. He faces up to 35 years in prison, though the plea deal is likely to lighten his sentence. Iza has been in custody since September and last month was transported to Las Vegas for surgery to remove rods from a leg-lengthening surgery that prosecutors say he paid for with money hidden from tax collectors.
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As far back as 2021, Iza paid Saavedra’s private security company — a business he ran on the side in addition to working as a deputy — $100,000 per month for round-the-clock bodyguards, court filings say. The hired muscle protected Iza and sometimes committed crimes for him, according to Saavedra’s plea agreement. For each 12-hour shift, Saavedra admitted, he picked two from a roster of 20 to 25 active deputies, paying them $750 cash. Even though it wasn’t official department work, some of the deputies often carried firearms and flashed their LASD badges, according to the agreement.
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Saavedra, 41, also admitted to illegally using his department credentials to access sensitive law enforcement databases and obtain personal identifiable information about people Iza had personal or business disputes with, as well as their associates and family members.
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In one case, Saavedra created a fake search warrant that he used to intimidate someone, according to the agreement. In another, the deputy admitted, he misled a narcotics detective, resulting in a drug raid on the home of a man Iza had previously extorted. In a third case, Saavedra said he lied to get a warrant, falsely claiming he needed to track a man’s cellphone as part of a firearms investigation.
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After he got the warrant and discovered the victim’s location, he gave that information to Iza — and later three people with guns tried to break into the man’s home.
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“Mr. Iza’s and Mr. Saavedra’s relationship was little more than a thuggish partnership between a thief and a crooked cop,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher. “The public should be able to trust members of law enforcement, but Mr. Saavedra violated his oath for a payday.”
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Both Iza and Saavedra’s plea agreements describe an array of criminal acts involving Saavedra and other unnamed sheriff’s deputies, who allegedly harassed and threatened people to further Iza’s criminal aims. So far, at least six deputies have been relieved of duty in connection with the case, as The Times reported last year. The Sheriff’s Department confirmed Friday afternoon that Saavedra was among them, saying he’d been relieved of duty as of Sept. 23.
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“This deplorable behavior is a direct violation of Department standards, betrays public trust, and tarnishes the reputation of all deputies and the entire Department,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. “Those who misuse their badge to exploit their power for personal gain through illegal activities have no place in law enforcement and must be held accountable. They have no place in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.”
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In a statement, Iza’s attorney, Josef Sadat, referred to his client as “one of the smartest individuals I have ever met.”
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“Hopefully, others involved in this, whose actions were more morally reprehensible than that of Mr. Iza given their comparative age and societal positions, will follow his path sooner than later since truth leads to redemption,” Sadat said.
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Brian Gurwitz, the attorney representing Saavedra, offered a short response early Friday.
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“Mr. Saavedra recognizes the breach of trust his actions represent and deeply regrets the harm they have caused to the community he dedicated decades to serving,” Gurwitz said. “To respect the Department of Justice’s ongoing investigation, he will not make further public comments at this time.”
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Start of a payday
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Saavedra said in his plea that he first learned of Iza around August 2021, through fellow deputies who had recently worked security for the crypto mogul at his Bel-Air mansion. That same month, Iza hired Saavedra’s company to provide security services.
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The deputy had a lengthy history in the department and in 2018 got a tattoo on his left ankle of the unofficial logo of the Lakewood sheriff’s station, which was a spade with the number 13 inside of it, according to his plea agreement.
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Saavedra admitted to recruiting around 20 to 25 deputies and others to accompany Iza 24/7. At times, Saavedra worked the shifts himself.
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According to his plea agreement, Saavedra regularly used his LASD credentials to access confidential databases to get information for Iza. Sometimes, he had fellow deputies working for his company do the same.
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Saavedra said he and the other deputies gave the crypto mogul personal information relating to several people, including three victims — identified in the agreement as R.C., E.Z. and D.D. — with whom Iza had disputes.
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One of the earliest incidents prosecutors described in court filings last year took place during an August 2021 party at Iza’s Bel-Air mansion. Iza wasn’t happy with the party and wanted the party planner — R.C. — to reimburse him for half the cost, prosecutors said.
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Last year, prosecutors alleged in an indictment that two of Iza’s bodyguards held R.C. at gunpoint and forced him to transfer back $25,000 he’d been paid for his services.
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In this week’s plea agreement, Saavedra admitted he knew the bodyguards — both of whom are deputies — had held someone at gunpoint. One of Iza’s associates claimed R.C. was a major fentanyl and cocaine dealer, leading Saavedra to pass the information along to a narcotics detectives, according to the court filings.
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Soon after, the narcotics detective told Saavedra that they had obtained a warrant but did not find any illegal drugs in R.C.’s home, according to Saavedra’s agreement.
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Iza also admitted that in October 2022, sheriff’s deputies in his employ illegally detained yet another victim — identified by the initials L.A. According to his plea, Iza held the victim at gunpoint and forced him to transfer $127,000 into a bank account he controlled.
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A $100-million laptop
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In late 2021, Saavedra said he learned of a dispute between Iza and E.Z. regarding a laptop believed to hold more than $100 million in cryptocurrency. Through court records and interviews, The Times was able to identify E.Z. as Enzo Zelocchi, a self-described “actor, producer and innovator.”
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Iza told Saavedra the laptop was stolen and that he wanted it so he could access and convert the cryptocurrency, court filings show. In a previous interview with The Times, Zelocchi said the laptop belonged to him.
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Iza later told Saavedra that he thought Zelocchi’s associate, D.D., might have the laptop. In December 2021, Saavedra, Iza and two others — including another deputy — went to D.D.’s Orange County home to confront him, according to Saavedra’s agreement, but D.D. refused to open the door and spoke to them through a window.
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Saavedra admitted in his plea agreement that he identified himself as law enforcement, showed his badge and told D.D. that a stolen laptop was pinging in his home. D.D. denied having a stolen laptop and after police arrived, the group departed.
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Iza later told Saavedra he’d hired a private investigator and was spending large sums of money to locate Zelocchi and the laptop with no success, according to Saavedra’s agreement. Iza said he was frustrated by the private investigator’s lack of progress, prompting Saavedra to offer a solution: a search warrant for GPS location information associated with Zelocchi’s phone.
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ALTADENA, CA - JANUARY 9, 2025: A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy stands guard in front of a home where a resident was killed inside their home during the Eaton fire on Alta Pine Drive on January 9, 2025 in Altadena, California. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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California
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Deputies warned to decontaminate clothes after lead, asbestos found in air near Eaton fire
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Jan. 16, 2025
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Saavedra admitted that in January 2022, he applied for and obtained a search warrant for several phone numbers, including Zelocchi’s. According to his plea agreement, Saavedra lied in a sworn affidavit, stating that Zelocchi’s number was tied to a suspect in a firearms investigation.
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After getting the illegally-obtained warrant, court records show Saavedra began receiving pings for Zelocchi’s phone, identifying the approximate location. Soon after, Saavedra admitted to traveling to an L.A. neighborhood where the phone was pinging and spotting Zelocchi outside a residence in an apartment complex.
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According to court filings, Saavedra told Iza that he had found Zelocchi and the two surveilled the apartment complex and residence.
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Iza admitted that he gave orders that led three people to try to force open the door of Zelocchi’s residence, but the effort failed when Zelocchi fired in their direction and they fled.
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Fake search warrant
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In 2022, Iza told Saavedra that one of his business associates — identified in court records as Client 1 — had been involved in stealing large amounts of cryptocurrency, and was interested in hiring private security. According to Saavedra’s plea agreement, Iza told Saavedra he could get the client’s business if Client 1 thought there was something to worry about.
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To do that, Iza allegedly suggested scaring Client 1 with a made-up investigation. So Saavedra created a fake search warrant, using the official Sheriff’s Department template to make it look legitimate.
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After writing up the false document, which mentioned cryptocurrency and digital services, Saavedra arranged to have another deputy share it with Iza, who showed it to the potential client, court filings say.
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ALTADENA, CA, JANUARY 10, 2025: Homes and vehicles burned in the Eaton Fire in Altadena on Friday, January 10, 2025. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
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California
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Altadena had soul, solitude and community. Can those qualities survive devastating firestorm?
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Jan. 11, 2025
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Not long afterward, Client 1 hired Saavedra’s company for security.
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Saavedra and his company provided services to Iza from August 2021 until around March 2022, when Iza left for Dubai, according to the plea agreement. When Iza returned to L.A. in July 2024, those services resumed until Iza’s arrest in September.
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Iza also admitted in his plea to stealing more than $37 million by fraudulently gaining access to Meta Platforms Inc. business manager accounts and their associated lines of credit from 2020 to 2022.
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Both Iza and Saavedra also admitted to federal tax crimes. Iza avoided the assessment of nearly $7 million in federal income tax due for 2021. Saavedra received approximately $373,146 in unreported income and subscribed to a false tax return for 2021.
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As part of his plea agreement, Saavedra said he would pay restitution to his victims, and pay his back taxes with interest. He also agreed to forfeit dozens of designer bags and shoes as well as a money counting machine, all of which prosecutors said were either ill-gotten gains or goods used to further criminal activity.
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From the steps of the federal courthouse, U.S. Atty. E. Martin Estrada addressed reporters on Friday morning — his last day in office. He referred to Iza as a “massive cyber fraudster” who used deputies as his “enforcers,” and said that he and Saavedra both “profited handsomely from their criminal scheme.”
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He thanked Sheriff Robert Luna for cooperating with federal authorities to ensure justice, and hinted at the possibility of more to come, saying the investigation is “very much ongoing.”
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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ARTICLE 2
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Source LA Times
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URL (no URL recorded for this column)
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Origin reported_K&R sheet, row 107, column "Article 2"
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Length 11,891 chars
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Crooked Cops, Stolen Laptops & the Ghost of UGNazi
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A California man accused of failing to pay taxes on tens of millions of dollars allegedly earned from cybercrime also paid local police officers hundreds of thousands of dollars to help him extort, intimidate and silence rivals and former business partners, the government alleges. KrebsOnSecurity has learned that many of the man’s alleged targets were members of UGNazi, a hacker group behind multiple high-profile breaches and cyberattacks back in 2012.
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A photo released by the government allegedly showing Iza posing with several LASD officers on his payroll.
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A federal complaint (PDF) filed last week said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been investigating Los Angeles resident Adam Iza. Also known as “Assad Faiq” and “The Godfather,” Iza is the founder of a cryptocurrency investment platform called Zort that advertised the ability to make smart trades based on artificial intelligence technology.
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But the feds say investors in Zort soon lost their shorts, after Iza and his girlfriend began spending those investments on Lamborghinis, expensive jewelry, vacations, a $28 million home in Bel Air, even cosmetic surgery to extend the length of his legs.
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The complaint states the FBI started looking at Iza after receiving multiple reports that he had on his payroll several active deputies with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD). Iza’s attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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The complaint cites a letter from an attorney for a victim referenced only as “E.Z.,” who was seeking help related to an extortion and robbery allegedly committed by Iza. The government says that in March 2022, three men showed up at E.Z.’s home, and tried to steal his laptop in an effort to gain access to E.Z. cryptocurrency holdings online. A police report referenced in the complaint says three intruders were scared off when E.Z. fired several handgun rounds in the direction of his assailants.
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The FBI later obtained a copy of a search warrant executed by LASD deputies in January 2022 for GPS location information on a phone belonging to E.Z., which shows an LASD deputy unlawfully added E.Z.’s mobile number to a list of those associated with an unrelated firearms investigation.
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“Damn my guy actually filed the warrant,” Iza allegedly texted someone after the location warrant was entered. “That’s some serious shit to do for someone….risking a 24 years career. I pay him 280k a month for complete resources. They’re active-duty.”
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The FBI alleges LASD officers had on several previous occasions tried to kidnap and extort E.Z. at Iza’s behest. The complaint references a November 2021 incident wherein Iza and E.Z. were in a car together when Iza asked to stop and get snacks at a convenience store. While they were still standing next to the car, a van with several armed LASD deputies showed up and tried to force E.Z. to hand over his phone. E.Z. escaped unharmed, and alerted 911.
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E.Z. appears to be short for Enzo Zelocchi, a self-described “actor” who was featured in an ABC News story about a home invasion in Los Angeles around that same time as the March 2022 home invasion, in which Zelocchi is quoted as saying at least two men tried to rob him at gunpoint (we’ll revisit Zelocchi’s acting credits in a moment).
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One of many self portraits published on the Instagram account of Enzo Zelocchi.
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The criminal complaint makes frequent references to a co-conspirator of Iza (“CC-1”) — his girlfriend at the time — who allegedly helped Iza run his businesses and spend the millions plunked down by Zort investors. We know what E.Z. stands for because Iza’s girlfriend then was a woman named Iris Au, and in November 2022 she sued Zelocchi for allegedly stealing Iza’s laptop.
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The complaint says Iza also harassed a man identified only as T.W., and refers to T.W. as one of two Americans currently incarcerated in the Philippines for murder. In December 2018, a then 21-year-old Troy Woody Jr. was arrested in Manila after he was spotted dumping the body of his dead girlfriend Tomi Masters into a local river.
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Woody is accused of murdering Masters with the help of his best friend and roommate at the time: Mir Islam, a.k.a. “JoshTheGod,” referred to in the Iza complaint as “M.I.” Islam and Woody were both core members of UGNazi, a hacker collective that sprang up in 2012 and claimed credit for hacking and attacking a number of high-profile websites.
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In June 2016, Islam was sentenced to a year in prison for an impressive array of crimes, including stalking people online and posting their personal data on the Internet. Islam also pleaded guilty to reporting dozens of phony bomb threats and fake hostage situations at the homes of celebrities and public officials (Islam participated in a swatting attack against this author in 2013).
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Troy Woody Jr. (left) and Mir Islam, are currently in prison in the Philippines for murder.
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In December 2022, Troy Woody Jr. sued Iza, Zelocchi and Zort, alleging (PDF) Iza and Zelocchi were involved in a 2018 home invasion at his residence, wherein Woody claimed his assailants stole laptops and phones containing more than $200 million in cryptocurrencies.
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Woody’s complaint states that Masters also was present during his 2018 home invasion, as was another core UGNazi member: Eric “CosmoTheGod” Taylor. CosmoTheGod rocketed to Internet infamy in 2013 when he and a number of other hackers set up the Web site exposed[dot]su, which published the address, Social Security numbers and other personal information of public figures, including the former First Lady Michelle Obama, the then-director of the FBI and the U.S. attorney general. The group also swatted many of the people they doxed.
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Exposed was built with the help of identity information obtained and/or stolen from ssndob dot ru.
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In 2017, Taylor was sentenced to three years probation for participating in multiple swatting attacks, including the one against my home in 2013.
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The complaint against Iza says the FBI interviewed Woody in Manila where he is currently incarcerated, and learned that Iza has been harassing him about passwords that would unlock access to cryptocurrencies. The FBI’s complaint leaves open the question of how Woody and Islam got the phones in the first place, but the implication is that Iza may have instigated the harassment by having mobile phones smuggled to the prisoners.
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The government suggests its case against Iza was made possible in part thanks to Iza’s propensity for ripping off people who worked for him. The complaint cites information provided by a private investigator identified only as “K.C.,” who said Iza hired him to surveil Zelocchi but ultimately refused to pay him for much of the work.
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K.C. stands for Kenneth Childs, who in 2022 sued Iris Au and Zort (PDF) for theft by deception and commercial disparagement, after it became clear his private eye services were being used as part of a scheme by the Zort founders to intimidate and extort others. Childs’ complaint says Iza clawed back tens of thousands of dollars in payments he’d previously made as part of their contract.
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The government also included evidence provided by an associate of Iza’s — named only as “R.C.” — who was hired to throw a party at Iza’s home. According to the feds, Iza paid the associate $50,000 to craft the event to his liking, but on the day of the party Iza allegedly told R.C. he was unhappy with the event and demanded half of his money back.
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When R.C. balked, Iza allegedly surrounded the man with armed LASD officers, who then extracted the payment by seizing his phone. The government says Iza kept R.C.’s phone and spent the remainder of his bank balance.
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A photo Iza allegedly sent to Tassilo Heinrich immediately after Heinrich’s arrest on unsubstantiated drug charges.
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The FBI said that after the incident at the party, Iza had his bribed sheriff deputies pull R.C. over and arrest him on phony drug charges. The complaint includes a photo of R.C. being handcuffed by the police, which the feds say Iza sent to R.C. in order to intimidate him even further. The drug charges were later dismissed for lack of evidence.
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The government alleges Iza and Au paid the LASD officers using Zelle transfers from accounts tied to two different entities incorporated by one or both of them: Dream Agency and Rise Agency. The complaint further alleges that these two entities were the beneficiaries of a business that sold hacked and phished Facebook advertising accounts, and bribed Facebook employees to unblock ads that violated its terms of service.
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The complaint says Iza ran this business with another individual identified only as “T.H.,” and that at some point T.H. had personal problems and checked himself into rehab. T.H. told the FBI that Iza responded by stealing his laptop and turning him in to the government.
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KrebsOnSecurity has learned that T.H. in this case is Tassilo Heinrich, a man indicted in 2022 for hacking into the e-commerce platform Shopify, and leaking the user database for Ledger, a company that makes hardware wallets for storing cryptocurrencies.
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Heinrich pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time served, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution to Shopify. Upon his release from custody, Heinrich told the FBI that Iza was still using his account at the public screenshot service Gyazo to document communications regarding his alleged bribing of LASD officers.
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Prosecutors say Iza and Au portrayed themselves as glamorous and wealthy individuals who were successful social media influencers, but that most of that was a carefully crafted facade designed to attract investment from cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Meanwhile, the U.K. tabloids reported this summer that Au was dating Davide Sanclimenti, the 2022 co-winner on the dating reality show Love Island.
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Au was featured on the July 2024 cover of “Womenpreneur Middle East.”
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Recall that we promised to revisit Mr. Zelocchi’s claimed acting credits. Despite being briefly listed on the Internet Movie Data Base (imdb.com) as the most awarded science fiction actor of all time, it’s not clear whether Mr. Zelocchi has starred in any real movies.
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Earlier this year, an Internet sleuth on Youtube showed that even though Zelocchi’s IMDB profile has him earning more awards than most other actors on the platform (here he is holding a Youtube top viewership award), Zelocchi is probably better known as the director of the movie once rated the absolute worst sci-fi flick on IMDB: A 2015 work called “Angel’s Apocalypse.” Most of the videos on Zelocchi’s Instagram page appear to be brief clips, some of which look more like a commercial for men’s cologne than scenes from a real movie.
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A Reddit post from a year ago calling attention to Zelocchi’s sci-fi film Angel’s Apocalypse somehow earning more audience votes than any other movie in the same genre.
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In many ways, the crimes described in this complaint and the various related civil lawsuits would prefigure a disturbing new trend within English-speaking cybercrime communities that has bubbled up in the past few years: The emergence of “violence-as-as-service” offerings that allow cybercriminals to anonymously extort and intimidate their rivals.
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Found on certain Telegram channels are solicitations for IRL or “In Real Life” jobs, wherein people hire themselves out as willing to commit a variety of physical attacks in their local geographic area, such as slashing tires, firebombing a home, or tossing a brick through someone’s window.
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Many of the cybercriminals in this community have stolen tens of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency, and can easily afford to bribe police officers. KrebsOnSecurity would expect to see more of this in the future as young, crypto-rich cybercriminals seek to corrupt people in authority to their advantage.
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================================================================================================
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generated from attacks-export-Gart-website.json + reported_K&R | case 106
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================================================================================================
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