WASHINGTON – Evan Tangeman, 22, of Newport Seaside, California, pleaded responsible immediately in connection together with his position in a multi-state conspiracy that used social engineering to steal tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in cryptocurrency from victims all through the US, introduced U.S. Lawyer Jeanine Ferris Pirro.
Tangeman is the ninth defendant to enter a responsible plea in this investigation. Tangeman pleaded to collaborating in a RICO conspiracy earlier than U.S. District Courtroom Choose Colleen Kollar-Kotelly and admitted that he helped to launder at the least $3.5 million for members of the enterprise.
Choose Kollar-Kotelly scheduled sentencing for April 24, 2026.
The Courtroom additionally unsealed the Second Superseding Indictment, which prices three extra defendants with their roles in the Social Engineering Enterprise (SE Enterprise). Nicholas Dellecave, often known as “Nic,” and “Souja,” Mustafa Ibrahim, often known as “Krust,” and Danish Zulfiqar, often known as “Danny,” and “Meech,” have been all charged with RICO conspiracy together with the remaining defendants. Dellecave was arrested in Miami on Dec.3, 2025. Zulfiqar and Ibrahim lately have been arrested in Dubai on associated prices.
In line with the Second Superseding Indictment, the enterprise started no later than October 2023 and continued via at the least Could 2025. It grew from friendships developed on on-line gaming platforms and was comprised of people based mostly in California, Connecticut, New York, Florida, and overseas.
Tangeman was a cash launderer for the group that additionally included database hackers, organizers, goal identifiers, callers, and residential burglars concentrating on {hardware} digital forex wallets.
In line with court docket paperwork, members of the enterprise used stolen databases to focus on victims for cryptocurrency thefts. They then used the stolen digital forex to buy, amongst different issues, nightclub companies ranging as much as $500,000 per night, luxurious purses valued in the tens of 1000’s of {dollars} that got away at nightclub events, luxurious watches valued between $100,000 and $500,000, luxurious clothes valued in the tens of 1000’s of {dollars}, rental houses in Los Angeles, the Hamptons, and Miami, non-public jet leases, a group of non-public safety guards, and a fleet of at the least 28 unique vehicles ranging in worth from $100,000 to $3.8 million.
The Second Superseding Indictment alleges that on Aug. 18, 2024, Tangeman’s co-conspirator Malone Lam, Danish Zulfiqar, and others contacted a sufferer in the District of Columbia and, via communications with that sufferer, fraudulently obtained over 4,100 Bitcoin – valued then at $263 million, and valued this week at greater than $368 million.
Tangeman first met the members of the in late 2023 when Lam and others moved to Los Angeles and wanted help discovering rental houses and paying for them with stolen cryptocurrency. Tangeman used a bulk-cash convertor to alternate stolen cryptocurrency for fiat money to acquire rental houses, some renting for between $40,000 – $80,000 per 30 days. Tangeman additionally prompted false names to be listed on the leases to hide the possession of the houses. Tangeman rented houses for the group in Miami as effectively. Throughout one alternate in August 2024, after the theft from the DC sufferer, Tangeman helped Lam get hold of roughly $3 million in fiat money in alternate for stolen cryptocurrency for a rental house.
Following Lam’s Miami arrest on Sept. 18, 2024, Tangeman accessed the house safety techniques to take screenshots of FBI brokers looking the residences. Tangeman additionally requested one other enterprise member to journey to Lam’s Los Angeles house, retrieve digital gadgets, and destroy them.
This case is being investigated by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Columbia, the FBI’s Washington Subject Workplace, and the IRS-Felony Investigation Washington D.C. Subject Workplace. Vital investigative and operational assist was offered by the FBI’s Los Angeles and Miami area workplaces in addition to the US Lawyer’s Officers in the Central District of California, Southern District of Florida, and the District of New Jersey.
The matter is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Lawyer Kevin Rosenberg, Co-Chief of the Fraud, Public Corruption, and Civil Rights Part of the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Columbia.
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