Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur Charged with Corruption, Extortion Using LAPD
Date: 2024-09-27 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: IN WORLD
The founder of a cryptocurrency platform is at the center of a major scandal involving bribes to Los Angeles police officers. The FBI says Adam Isa, the creator of Zort Inc., bribed police officers to extort cryptocurrency from one of his business partners, known as E.Z.
According to the investigation, Isa paid three police officers up to $280,000 per month to access inside information and obtain dubious search warrants. The data was used to pressure the victim after a failed kidnapping attempt in November 2021. At that time, E.Z. managed to evade the kidnapping and contact the authorities, although Isa claimed that he was only trying to protect himself by hiring bodyguards.
Further evidence suggests that Isa also hired a private investigator to spy on E.Z. and provided him with images from police databases. The victim would receive messages with personal information and family photos, adding to the pressure. Isa is also alleged to have demanded that he hand over a laptop containing cryptocurrency or face further action.
Isa is also accused of another incident in which he allegedly posed as an FBI agent and stole a laptop containing cryptocurrency assets from another victim at gunpoint.
Isa is also suspected of tax evasion by hiding millions of dollars in cryptocurrency profits. Between 2020 and 2022, he and his accomplices amassed more than $30 million, which they laundered through shell companies and spent on luxury cars and renting a luxury mansion in Bel Air.
Authorities have filed charges of civil rights conspiracy and tax evasion, and a trial is scheduled for October 8.
Rise in Crypto Crime
The FBI notes that such cases are not uncommon amid rising cryptocurrency prices, which attract the attention of criminals. Kidnappings and extortions are not uncommon in the crypto world. In August, Malaysian police were searching for criminals who kidnapped a man and demanded a ransom of $1.2 million in cryptocurrency. In Hong Kong, two kidnappers demanded $66,000 in cryptocurrency, and last year in Spain, a crypto portfolio manager was kidnapped for €1 million.
As in the case of Adam Isa, cybercrime is becoming more diverse, affecting not only cryptocurrency wallets, but also the personal data of victims, which is used to further pressure.
