LOS ANGELES – A deputy and helicopter pilot with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division (LASD) pleaded responsible at this time to federal conspiracy expenses for serving to a now-jailed, self-styled cryptocurrency businessman extort a rival and prepare the sham unlawful drug possession arrest of one other adversary in Paramount in 2021.
Michael David Coberg, 44, of Eastvale, pleaded responsible to a two-count data charging him with conspiracy to commit extortion and conspiracy towards rights.
In accordance to his plea settlement, Coberg – then employed as an LASD deputy and helicopter pilot – labored on the aspect with Adam Iza, 25, previously of Beverly Hills and Newport Coast. Iza, a self-proclaimed “Godfather,” was engaged in fraudulent advertising and marketing and cryptocurrency schemes and has been in federal custody since September 2024. He has pleaded guilty to federal expenses and awaits a December 15 sentencing date.
Coberg’s contract with Iza allowed him to work as a enterprise associate and advisor, as opposed to merely working safety shifts. Coberg and Iza at one level deliberate to begin a enterprise promoting anabolic steroids. Iza paid Coberg at the very least $20,000 monthly for his companies.
Participation in Extortion
In October 2021, Coberg accompanied different safety guards to decide up a sufferer whose enterprise associate was having a monetary dispute with Iza. After transporting the sufferer – recognized in court docket paperwork as “L.A.” – to Iza’s residence, Iza positioned a firearm on the desk and displayed an assault rifle, which was positioned on the bottom close to the desk.
Coberg knowledgeable the sufferer that he was an active-duty legislation enforcement officer and interrogated the sufferer in regards to the monetary dispute Iza had with L.A.’s enterprise associate. Whereas Coberg stood watch over the sufferer, Iza demanded – and recorded a video of – the sufferer transferring $127,000 to a checking account Iza managed. Iza then directed his safety guards to take away the sufferer’s passport and advised them to drive the sufferer again to the sufferer’s resort.
The subsequent day, Coberg continued to interrogate the sufferer in regards to the monetary dispute and the situation of the sufferer’s enterprise associate. Later that day, Coberg took Iza and the sufferer to a capturing vary in Iza’s residence and left the 2 people alone. Iza then held the sufferer at gunpoint and demanded the sufferer’s enterprise associate switch cash to him, which the sufferer’s enterprise associate did later that day.
False Site visitors Cease and Arrest
In September 2021, Coberg conspired with Iza and others to lure one other sufferer – recognized in court docket paperwork as “R.C.” – from Miami to Los Angeles to arrange the sufferer and trigger him to be arrested with unlawful narcotics. Through the earlier month, Coberg discovered of a dispute between Iza and the sufferer and that Iza and two corrupt LASD deputies working for Iza compelled the sufferer at gunpoint to switch $25,000 from the sufferer’s checking account to an account Iza managed.
Coberg and different co-conspirators arrange a plan by which the sufferer’s ex-girlfriend referred to as the sufferer and pretended to be interested by pursuing a romantic relationship to persuade the sufferer to fly to Los Angeles to meet with her to use medicine collectively. At Coberg’s recommendation and counseling, the co-conspirator bought the airplane ticket for the sufferer, picked him up at Los Angeles Worldwide Airport in a white Tesla, drove the sufferer to get hold of medicine, and later traveled to a location in Paramount the place an LASD deputy would make the site visitors cease and arrest.
Christopher Michael Cadman, 33, of Fullerton, a corrupt LASD deputy who had participated within the intimidation of the sufferer in August 2021 ensuing within the $25,000 fee to Iza, additionally helped arrange the false arrest. Cadman pleaded guilty on August 7 to federal prison expenses and awaits sentencing in January 2026.
With Cadman’s help, Coberg lied to a fellow LASD deputy {that a} confidential informant was driving a white Tesla with a person who had an excellent arrest warrant and possessed unlawful medicine. That deputy later carried out the site visitors cease, searched the Tesla, discovered cocaine within the automotive and psilocybin mushrooms contained in the sufferer’s backpack, and arrested the sufferer.
Through the arrest, Coberg slowly drove previous the scene in a black Cadillac Escalade SUV – with the window rolled down – as Iza watched from the again passenger seat. Iza took movies and pictures of the sufferer’s arrest.
After the arrest, Coberg texted Cadman to thank him for facilitating the site visitors cease and said, “the child loved it,” referencing Iza. Iza later taunted the sufferer by sending him {a photograph} of the sufferer’s arrest in progress and the sufferer’s reserving photograph, and texting him, “[f]or a drug seller, you [expletive] with the fallacious folks.”
United States District Choose Percy Anderson scheduled a February 17, 2026, sentencing listening to, at which era Coberg will face a statutory most sentence of 20 years in federal jail on the extortion-related rely and up to 10 years in federal jail on the conspiracy towards rights rely.
The FBI and IRS Felony Investigation are investigating this matter. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division has offered help.
Assistant United States Lawyer Maxwell Coll of the Nationwide Safety Division is prosecuting this case.
