Eric Halem, a former Los Angeles Police Division officer with 13 years of expertise, was sentenced for orchestrating a faux police raid that ended with the theft of $350,000 in BTC from a teenage crypto investor.
Halem was sentenced to life in jail plus one other 15 years for his position within the violent house invasion, which grew to become one of the crucial high-profile crypto-related theft circumstances in recent times.
Halem remained a reserve officer on the time of the crime and was convicted of kidnapping and theft after a jury discovered that he and a number of other accomplices impersonated precise law enforcement officials to realize entry to the sufferer’s residence in late 2024.
Prosecutors argued that the group entered a high-rise residence in Los Angeles’ Koreatown whereas sporting police-identifying vests and carrying LAPD-issued handcuffs. They restrained {the teenager} and his girlfriend and threatened to shoot them in the event that they didn’t give entry to a tough drive containing $350,000 value of bitcoin.
“It isn’t that I’ve a better commonplace for Mr. Halem (as a result of he was once a police officer); it’s the details of this case which are an affront to the courtroom and needs to be an affront to the general public,” commented Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom Decide Mildred Escobedo.
Curiously, the sufferer admitted through the course of that his BTC earnings got here from fraudulent exercise, which was the protection’s important counterargument. Escobedo, then again, responded that this doesn’t excuse Halem’s actions and should nonetheless be held accountable.
The submit Ex-LAPD Officer Will get Life in Jail After Posing as Police to Steal $350K Price of BTC appeared first on CryptoPotato.