Ex-LAPD Officer Gets Life Plus 15 Years Over $350K Bitcoin Robbery - Decrypt
In briefA Los Angeles judge handed ex-LAPD officer Eric Halem concurrent life terms for kidnapping and robbery, rejecting his bid for a new trial. Halem’s crew entered the victim’s apartment using an access. . .
In briefA Los Angeles judge handed ex-LAPD officer Eric Halem concurrent life terms for kidnapping and robbery, rejecting his bid for a new trial. Halem’s crew entered the victim’s apartment using an access code obtained from a conspirator who had rented it. Halem still faces charges over insurance fraud and a second crypto robbery days earlier. A former Los Angeles police officer was sentenced Tuesday to life plus 15 years in state prison for a home invasion in which $350,000 inBitcoinwas taken from a teenager, theLos Angeles Timesreported. Eric Halem, 38, wasfound guilty in Marchof kidnapping and robbery after a two-week trial, with jurors returning a verdict in under a day. Superior Court Judge Mildred Escobedo rejected a late bid for a new trial before imposing concurrent life terms, saying the evidence showed a man prepared to use violence out of "sheer and utter greed. " He becomes eligible for parole after seven years, according to the district attorney's office. Prosecutors said Halem and three other menentered a Koreatown apartmentat around 2:30 a. m. on December 28, 2024, handcuffed two victims, moved funds out of their cryptocurrency account and took cash and jewellery. The men arrived in a Range Rover and a Lamborghini Urus registered to Halem's car rental business, wore vests identifying them as police, and let themselves in with an access code supplied by a conspirator who had rented the unit. Halem had left the department nearly two years earlier after 13 years of service, though he was still a reserve officer at the time. The 17-year-old, who testified under his first name only, had built his holdings partly by scamming others. Escobedo said that did not excuse the crime, and that a former officer masquerading as police to rob someone was "heinous and egregious. "Halem's family disputes the outcome. His mother Randi told the paper she believed the truth had not emerged at trial, calling it "a miscarriage of the law. "Luis Banuelos, Pierre Louis and Mishael Mann were each charged in August 2025 with kidnapping for ransom, first-degree residential robbery and home invasion robbery in concert. All pleaded not guilty, have yet to stand trial and maintain their innocence. Halem faces further charges over insurance fraud and a second crypto robbery said to have taken place days before the Koreatown raid. Those remain allegations. Fake badges, and real onesSo-called "wrench attacks," where criminals use violence to coerce crypto holders, are on the rise globally. CertiKverified 52 wrench attacksworldwide in the first half of 2026, with recorded losses of $124. 1 million. Remy St. Felix was sentenced to47 yearsin September 2024 for running a violent crypto home-invasion ring, at the time the longest term handed down in a U. S. crypto case. Impersonating police has become a recurring technique for crypto criminals. Three men posing as officersheld a French couple at knifepointin March, forcing a $1 million Bitcoin transfer, and a 32-year-old wasindicted in Nancyin June over a similar attack on a couple whose holdings had been exposed in a data breach. In Ukraine, prosecutors in Mayaccused four police officers and a civilianof kidnapping crypto entrepreneurs at gunpoint and extorting $2. 2 million using fabricated debt claims. Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.