Self-Styled “Crypto Godfather” Sentenced to 15 Years for Connecticut Carjacking

Adam Iza, known in Los Angeles as the “Crypto Godfather,” was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in federal prison for orchestrating a violent carjacking and attempted robbery in Danbury, Connecticut, in 2024.

Iza, whose trajectory from teenage tech prodigy to alleged criminal mastermind was detailed in a 2025 feature in Rolling Stone, admitted to helping finance and organize an attempted robbery of $50 million in Bitcoin; however, he disputed his level of involvement in the carjacking during sentencing.

Prosecutors allege that Iza directed two crews—one from St. Louis, where he grew up, and another from Miami—to track a rival in the underground hacker community and seize control of his crypto accounts. When the St. Louis crew, which included Iza’s younger brother, failed to locate the target (an 18-year-old Rutgers student named Veer Chetal), Iza pressured the Miami operatives to proceed. “Let’s fucking do this,” he texted over Telegram, according to court evidence. “You need to find his room. Just knock out the parents. They old as fuck.”

Instead, the Miami crew—all of whom have pleaded guilty—followed Chetal’s parents, who were house-hunting in Danbury in a quarter-million-dollar Lamborghini, and rammed their vehicle from behind while other crew members blocked them with a white van. Six men dressed in black and wearing masks then emerged, dragged the Chetals from their car, and led them to the van, where Chetal’s father was beaten with a metal baseball bat, breaking his arm. Both parents were bound with duct tape and forced into the vehicle.

The attack occurred in broad daylight, prompting several witnesses to call 911. A police chase followed, and within hours, seven suspects were arrested.

“The defendant’s conduct involved extended premeditation and planning, the recruitment of others to do his bidding and take the risks, an enthusiasm for extreme violence, and the willingness to impose physical and psychological trauma on vulnerable victims to satisfy his own greed and arrogance,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “Further, he has demonstrated contempt for the law and, given his track record, is highly likely to offend again.”

The defense argued that Iza could not be linked to the Telegram account connected to the carjacking, but prosecutors dismissed this as unsupported and indicative of his refusal to accept full responsibility.

“I think the judge, in some ways, held him a little bit more accountable because he didn’t admit to the kidnapping aspect,” Iza’s attorney, Bill Paetzold, told Rolling Stone after the sentencing. “It’s possible the judge could have been maybe a little more sympathetic towards him because his family history is very, very tragic.”

Paetzold urged the judge to consider that history, noting that Iza—whom he compared to Oliver Twist—had grown up in Iraq and Syria during wartime and briefly survived by begging and stealing. “He fell in with a group of boys like himself,” Paetzold wrote in a sentencing memo.

After immigrating to the United States with his parents, the family settled in St. Louis, where Iza attended high school. He dropped out at 16 and moved to California, where he joined a group of hackers.

“I think the moral of the story is, if you’re in the fast lane, be careful, you might crash,” Paetzold says.

It was in California that Iza began referring to himself as the Godfather, commissioning a portrait of himself as a fictional mafia don. As Rolling Stone detailed last October, Iza built a fortune through crypto while living in the state, claiming a net worth of $700 million and residing in a Bel Air mansion once owned by Prince.

Prosecutors say that fortune was built on fraud, extortion, intimidation, and violence. In January 2024, Iza pleaded guilty to tax evasion, wire fraud, and conspiracy charges that included “abuses of police power.” They allege he employed five former Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department deputies who provided security but were also used to intimidate or extort associates and rivals, including planting drugs on a former associate.

Another alleged target, David Do, said a former LASD deputy harassed and followed him at Iza’s direction, at one point assaulting him in an attempt to steal a laptop Iza believed contained $300 million in crypto. Do said he recently submitted his victim impact statement to prosecutors in California but was unaware Iza faced charges in another state.

“It’s a relief,” Do says. “It gives me a small sense of justice.”

Paetzold says Iza plans to appeal his sentence. He is scheduled to be sentenced in the California case on October 5.

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