Briefly
- A Los Angeles choose handed ex-LAPD officer Eric Halem concurrent life phrases for kidnapping and theft, rejecting his bid for a brand new trial.
- Halem’s crew entered the sufferer’s house utilizing an entry code obtained from a conspirator who had rented it.
- Halem nonetheless faces expenses over insurance coverage fraud and a second crypto theft days earlier.
A former Los Angeles police officer was sentenced Tuesday to life plus 15 years in state jail for a house invasion by which $350,000 in Bitcoin was taken from a youngster, the Los Angeles Occasions reported.
Eric Halem, 38, was discovered responsible in March of kidnapping and theft after a two-week trial, with jurors returning a verdict in underneath a day. Superior Courtroom Choose Mildred Escobedo rejected a late bid for a brand new trial earlier than imposing concurrent life phrases, saying the proof confirmed a person ready to make use of violence out of “sheer and utter greed.” He turns into eligible for parole after seven years, in keeping with the district legal professional’s workplace.
Prosecutors stated Halem and three different males entered a Koreatown house at round 2:30 a.m. on December 28, 2024, handcuffed two victims, moved funds out of their cryptocurrency account and took money and jewelry. The boys arrived in a Vary Rover and a Lamborghini Urus registered to Halem’s automobile rental enterprise, wore vests figuring out them as police, and let themselves in with an entry code equipped by a conspirator who had rented the unit.
Halem had left the division almost two years earlier after 13 years of service, although he was nonetheless a reserve officer on the time.
The 17-year-old, who testified underneath his first identify solely, had constructed his holdings partly by scamming others. Escobedo stated that didn’t excuse the crime, and {that a} former officer masquerading as police to rob somebody was “heinous and egregious.”
Halem’s household disputes the end result. His mom Randi informed the paper she believed the reality had not emerged at trial, calling it “a miscarriage of the regulation.”
Luis Banuelos, Pierre Louis and Mishael Mann have been every charged in August 2025 with kidnapping for ransom, first-degree residential theft and residential invasion theft in live performance. All pleaded not responsible, have but to face trial and preserve their innocence.
Halem faces additional expenses over insurance coverage fraud and a second crypto theft stated to have taken place days earlier than the Koreatown raid. These stay allegations.
Faux badges, and actual ones
So-called “wrench assaults,” the place criminals use violence to coerce crypto holders, are on the rise globally. CertiK verified 52 wrench assaults worldwide within the first half of 2026, with recorded losses of $124.1 million. Remy St. Felix was sentenced to 47 years in September 2024 for operating a violent crypto home-invasion ring, on the time the longest time period handed down in a U.S. crypto case.
Impersonating police has develop into a recurring approach for crypto criminals. Three males posing as officers held a French couple at knifepoint in March, forcing a $1 million Bitcoin switch, and a 32-year-old was indicted in Nancy in June over an identical assault on a pair whose holdings had been uncovered in a knowledge breach. In Ukraine, prosecutors in Could accused 4 law enforcement officials and a civilian of kidnapping crypto entrepreneurs at gunpoint and extorting $2.2 million utilizing fabricated debt claims.
Each day Debrief E-newsletter
Begin each day with the highest information tales proper now, plus unique options, a podcast, movies and extra.