Case Explained:This article breaks down the legal background, charges, and implications of Case Explained: Sheriff’s Deputy Pleads Guilty to Obstructing Probe Into Crypto Fraudster – Legal Perspective
One day after a former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy was sentenced to prison for helping a now-jailed cryptocurrency mogul extort a rival, another deputy pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge in a related case.
Scott Simpkins, 34, of Brea, pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice. He was relieved of duty by the sheriff’s department on Oct. 30, 2024, pending the outcome of the criminal investigation, according to a statement from the department.
According to his plea agreement, Simpkins was a deputy assigned to the Lakewood Sheriff’s Station and worked for the department’s Special Enforcement Bureau and SWAT team. He also worked about six to eight shifts as a private security guard for Saavedra & Associates and received cash payments for his services.
Saavedra & Associates was a private company owned and operated by then-LASD Deputy and one-time federal task force officer Eric Chase Saavedra, 43, of Chino, which employed active sheriff’s deputies and law enforcement officers and provided private security services for clients.
One of those clients was Adam Iza, 25, who lived in Beverly Hills and Newport Beach, a self-styled crypto businessman who called himself “the Godfather.”
Iza pleaded guilty in January 2025 to one count of conspiracy against rights, one count of wire fraud, and one count of tax evasion, and awaits sentencing.
In August 2021, Iza hired Simpkins, fellow then-sheriff’s Deputy Christopher Michael Cadman, 34, of Fullerton, and other law enforcement officers to provide private security at a party at his Bel-Air mansion. At the time, Simpkins knew Iza possessed at least one firearm, prosecutors said.
After the party ended, at around 3 or 4 a.m. on Aug. 15, 2021, Simpkins learned the party planner — identified in court documents as R.C. — had been kicked out of the party for erratic behavior.
The next day, Simpkins worked another shift at Iza’s Bel-Air mansion and, along with Cadman, escorted R.C. to Iza’s office and closed the door behind them. Iza — seated behind his office desk — then took steps to intimidate R.C. to obtain $25,000 by placing four or five rounds of live 9mm ammunition on his desk across from R.C., court papers show.
While speaking to the victim, Iza picked up the live ammunition and twirled a bullet in his hand as he spoke threateningly to R.C., prosecutors said.
During this meeting, Iza accessed R.C.’s phone after demanding that $25,000 be transferred from R.C.’s bank account to an Iza-controlled bank account. After the transfer occurred, Simpkins and Cadman escorted R.C. out of Iza’s mansion.
In response to Simpkins and Cadman helping to secure a long-term contract with Iza, Saavedra & Associates paid them approximately 10% of the company’s total profits for the contract’s first month, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
After Iza’s arrest in September 2024 and the R.C.-related conduct being charged — along with other crimes — in a federal criminal complaint and an indictment against Iza, the FBI executed a search warrant on Simpkins and seized his phone.
In his plea agreement, Simpkins admitted that in a November 2024 meeting with federal law enforcement concerning Iza and corrupt sheriff’s deputies and in which he was warned that lying would result in criminal prosecution, Simpkins lied repeatedly to FBI agents and federal prosecutors, saying he saw no ammunition or shell casings inside Iza’s office during the incident with R.C.
Simpkins further admitted that he lied when he said he saw no financial transactions occur, and acknowledged that he knew his lies had the probable effect of interfering with the criminal investigation and legal proceedings against Iza.
U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson scheduled a July 13 sentencing hearing, at which time Simpkins will face up to 10 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.
Iza, Saavedra and Cadman, among others, have pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges and await sentencing.
On Monday, Anderson sentenced former sheriff’s Deputy Michael Coberg, 44, of Eastvale, to five years, three months in federal prison. Coberg was ordered to pay $127,000 in restitution for helping Iza extort a rival and arrange the sham illegal drug possession arrest of another adversary in Paramount in 2021.