A former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy was sentenced this week to one year, six months behind bars for blocking a federal probe by falsely claiming he never witnessed a self-styled cryptocurrency mogul threaten and extort $25,000 from a party planner at a Bel Air mansion.
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Scott Allen Simpkins, 34, of Brea was sentenced Monday, July 13 by U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson, who also fined him $10,000.
Simpkins pleaded guilty in March in Los Angeles federal court to one count of obstruction of justice. He resigned from LASD’s Special Enforcement Bureau after pleading guilty to the felony.
According to his plea agreement, Simpkins was a deputy assigned to the sheriff’s Lakewood 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 security company owned and operated by then-LASD deputy and former federal task force Officer Eric Chase Saavedra, 43, of Chino. The company employed active LASD deputies and other law enforcement officers to provide security services for clients.
One of those was Adam Iza, 25, who resided in Beverly Hills and Newport Beach, was a self-styled cryptocurrency businessman who called himself “Godfather,” and who has been in federal custody since September 2024. 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, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Last month, Iza pleaded guilty in a Connecticut federal court to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery related to his involvement in an attempted robbery of Bitcoin and a kidnapping in Danbury, Connecticut in August 2024.
In August 2021, Iza hired Simpkins, then-LASD 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, court papers show.
After the party ended, at around 3 or 4 a.m. on Aug. 15, 2021, Simpkins learned the party planner had been kicked out of the gathering for erratic behavior.
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The next day, Simpkins worked another shift at Iza’s Bel Air mansion and — along with Cadman — escorted the party planner to Iza’s office and threatened him.
During the meeting, Iza accessed the party planner’s phone after demanding that $25,000 be transferred from the party planner’s bank account to an Iza-controlled account, prosecutors said.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, after the incident, Iza hired Saavedra & Associates as his private security provider and made substantial payments to Saavedra and his employees.
After Iza’s arrest in September 2024, the FBI executed a search warrant on Simpkins and seized his phone.
In a November 2024 meeting with federal law enforcement concerning Iza and corrupt sheriff’s deputies and in which Simpkins was warned that lying would result in criminal prosecution, officials said Simpkins lied repeatedly to FBI agents and federal prosecutors that he saw no ammunition or shell casings inside Iza’s office during the incident with the party planner. Simpkins further lied when he said he saw no financial transaction.
Simpkins admitted in his plea agreement that he knew his lies had the probable effect of interfering with the criminal investigation and legal proceedings against Iza and were material to the investigation.
Saavedra and Cadman, among others, have pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges and await sentencing in downtown Los Angeles.
Former LASD Deputy Michael David Coberg, 44, of Eastvale is serving a federal prison sentence of five years and three months and 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.
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