Former LA deputy jailed for lying in Adam Iza crypto extortion case

A former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after admitting he lied to federal investigators about threats made by a cryptocurrency businessman during a 2021 extortion incident.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson also imposed a $10,000 fine on Scott Allen Simpkins, who pleaded guilty on March 17 to one count of obstruction of justice. Simpkins resigned from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Enforcement Bureau after entering his felony plea, according to the office.

Federal prosecutors said Simpkins falsely denied witnessing cryptocurrency businessman Adam Iza threaten a victim with live ammunition during an incident at Iza’s Bel Air home in 2021.

Court records cited by the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Simpkins was working private security at the residence with fellow former LASD deputy Christopher Michael Cadman. Both men were employed by Saavedra & Associates, a private security company owned by then-LASD Deputy Eric Chase Saavedra.

According to prosecutors, Iza placed four or five live 9mm rounds on his desk, spun one of the bullets while threatening the victim, and demanded a $25,000 transfer before Simpkins and Cadman escorted the victim off the property.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the two deputies received $1,400 each for their work that day. After helping Saavedra & Associates secure a longer-term security contract with Iza, the company paid each of them about 10% of its profits from the contract’s first month, prosecutors added.

Iza still awaits sentencing

Separate federal cases against Iza have continued to move forward.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Iza has remained in federal custody since September 2024 after pleading guilty in California in January 2025 to conspiracy against rights, wire fraud, and tax evasion. He has not yet been sentenced in that case.

In a separate prosecution, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in June that Iza also pleaded guilty in federal court in Connecticut to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery. The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

According to the Justice Department, the Connecticut case involved a 2024 kidnapping plot targeting the parents of Veer Chetal, a man accused of participating in the theft of about 4,100 bitcoin. Prosecutors said Iza and his brother, Saif Faiq, organised the scheme in an attempt to extort cryptocurrency.

As pre DOJ records, Faiq pleaded guilty on June 9, when he admitted recruiting six men from Florida, arranging their travel to Connecticut, and coordinating surveillance before the attack in Danbury. Prosecutors said the group allegedly forced Sushil and Radhika Chetal from their vehicle after staging a collision, assaulted them, and briefly held them captive. The six alleged attackers later pleaded guilty to kidnapping and carjacking offences, according to the department.

Federal records cited by the DOJ show Veer Chetal separately pleaded guilty in November 2025 to charges connected to the theft of approximately 4,100 bitcoin and is awaiting sentencing.