Iris Rabaya Au has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after admitting she concealed more than $2.6m linked to the criminal activities of her former boyfriend, Adam Iza.
The 37-year-old Irvine woman pleaded guilty in March 2025 to filing a false tax return after prosecutors said more than $2.6m was transferred from company accounts into her personal bank accounts between 2020 and 2023. The income was not declared on her federal tax returns, according to the US Department of Justice’s sentencing announcement on 21 September.
US District Judge Percy Anderson also ordered Au to pay $1,484,343 in restitution. She must forfeit luxury and high-performance cars, designer handbags, three “Godfather” sculptures and other assets. Iza used the “Godfather” nickname while portraying himself as a cryptocurrency businessman.
Au’s conviction related to the income she failed to declare, but prosecutors said she played a wider financial role in supporting Iza’s spending.
According to her plea agreement, Au established shell companies and opened bank accounts at Iza’s direction. Funds deposited into those accounts were then used to pay about $1m to Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, mostly in cash. The money also financed luxury property, vehicles, jewellery, clothing and nearly $10m in recreational spending for the couple.
Through the companies, Au also acquired about $16m in cryptocurrency for Iza. The Justice Department said those purchases provided digital assets that he could hold, exchange or transfer. That sum was separate from the more than $2.6m moved into Au’s personal accounts and omitted from her tax returns.
The deputies provided Iza with private security, but prosecutors said their involvement went further. They allegedly obtained confidential law enforcement information and court-authorised search warrants aimed at people involved in Iza’s personal or financial disputes. Iza’s arrest in September 2024 brought wider attention to the investigation.
Former deputy David Anthony Rodriguez was sentenced to one year in prison in a related case. He admitted using a false warrant application to obtain the location of a man’s mobile phone for a private client.
The Justice Department also said Iza fraudulently obtained access to Meta advertising accounts and related credit lines before selling that access. He pleaded guilty in January 2025 in federal court in Los Angeles to conspiracy against rights, wire fraud and tax evasion. His sentencing in that case is scheduled for 5 October.
Iza was separately sentenced by a Connecticut federal judge to 15 years in prison on 9 September for his role in an attempted bitcoin robbery and kidnapping in Connecticut in August 2024. Authorities said he helped plan and finance a plot against the parents of someone connected to a major bitcoin theft; the parents were kidnapped after a violent carjacking.
That sentence came before his pending sentencing in California. Federal prosecutors are also seeking approximately $47,000 in cryptocurrency allegedly taken from five victims in a technology-support and government-impersonation fraud scheme.
