SoCal man laundered millions for 'crypto kids' who used stolen loot to live lavishly - BERITAJA

A Newport Beach man has been sentenced to national situation for laundering money for a group of young con artists who prosecutors said stole $263 cardinal successful cryptocurrency and utilized the loot to acquisition luxury cars, rent retired mansions and backstage jets and walk arsenic overmuch arsenic $500,000 astatine nightclubs.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced 22-year-old Evan Tangeman to 70 months successful national situation aft he pleaded blameworthy successful December. She besides ordered him to service 3 years of supervised released.

Tangeman admitted to national authorities that he laundered astatine slightest $3.5 cardinal for the group, which scammed much than $263 cardinal successful cryptocurrency from investors successful the U.S.

Federal authorities said Tangeman, whose monikers included “E,” “Tate” and “Evan|Exchanger,” was one of 9 members of a “social engineering crime enterprise” made up of hackers, scammers, residential burglars and crypto money launderers.

Social engineering is simply a type of fraud strategy utilized to instrumentality victims into providing scammers pinch passwords, PINs and different individual information.

Federal investigators said the group impersonated information technicians and labor of cryptocurrency speech companies specified arsenic Coinbase and Gemini to bargain from their victims.

“This criminal endeavor was built connected greed truthful brazen it borders connected cartoonish,” said U.S Atty. Jeanine Ferris Pirro. “They stole millions, spent it connected half-million-dollar nightclub tabs, Lamborghinis, and Rolexes.”

Federal authorities said the group formed done online gaming platforms. Its members, including immoderate who were teenagers, lived successful California, Connecticut, New York, Florida and successful different countries.

Federal authorities said the group had begun its crime spree by October 2023 and continued done astatine slightest May 2025.

Earlier this year, 1 of the members of the group, a 17-year-old teen, testified against Eric Halem, a erstwhile Los Angeles constabulary serviceman who was convicted past period of robbing $350,000 worthy of cryptocurrency from the teen successful 2024.

In testifying against Halem, the teen, who was sworn successful to attest conscionable nether his first name, Daniel, revealed a subculture about recently created crypto wealth.

Prosecutors said “crypto kids” included fixers who group them up pinch homes, cars, apparel and different luxuries.

Among the fixers was Tangeman, who national authorities said not only converted the stolen cryptocurrency into rate but worked pinch existent property agents successful Los Angeles to get ample mansions for members.

They said the group was made up of unemployed young men, often nether 20 years old, who feared drafting attraction from authorities for renting homes astatine $40,000 to $80,000 a period pinch nary root of income.

“Some of those homes were weighted from $4 cardinal up to about $9 million,” national prosecutors said successful a news merchandise announcing Tangeman’s sentencing.

They said the group besides had rental homes successful the Hamptons successful New York and successful Miami.

Federal officials said the money Tangeman laundered was spent by the group to unrecorded lavishly, including hundreds of thousands of dollars spent astatine nightclubs, and luxury handbags weighted astatine tens of thousands of dollars that were fixed distant astatine nightclub parties. The group besides bought luxury apparel and watches that costs up to $500,000. It besides had a fleet of luxury cars ranging successful worth from $100,000 to about $4 million.

Federal prosecutors said Tangeman was good rewarded for his services. At slightest 1 personnel arranged for the acquisition of a wide-body Lamborghini Urus worthy hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Federal agents seized a achromatic 2022 Rolls-Royce Ghost, weighted astatine much than $300,000, while serving a hunt warrant astatine Tangeman’s home. They besides seized a Porsche GT3 RS.

“Finally, erstwhile the first members of the criminal endeavor — co-defendants Malone Lam and Jeandiel Serrano — were arrested and the monolithic standard of their fraud revealed, it was Tangeman who took it upon himself to nonstop co-defendant Tucker Desmond to destruct integer devices belonging to members of the enterprise,” the caller merchandise read.