LOS ANGELES — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - California, Central), published as received.
LOS ANGELES – An Orange County woman who is the former girlfriend of a cryptocurrency fraudster who called himself “The Godfather” was sentenced today to 18 months in federal prison for failing to report more than $2.6 million in ill-gotten gains she obtained via her then-boyfriend’s criminal activities.
Iris Rabaya Au, 37, of Irvine, was sentenced by United States District Judge Percy Anderson, who also ordered her to pay $1,484,343 in restitution and to forfeit a fleet of luxury and high-performance cars, designer handbags, and three “Godfather” sculptures, among other assets.
Au pleaded guilty in March 2025 to one count of subscribing to a false tax return.
According to Au’s plea agreement, from 2020 to 2024, once dated Adam Iza, 26, who resided in Beverly Hills and Newport Beach, and was a self-styled cryptocurrency businessman who has been in federal custody since September 2024.
Iza committed a series of crimes, including fraudulently obtaining access to advertising accounts and lines of credit provided by Facebook Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. and selling access to those accounts. Iza obtained millions of dollars of unreported income because of these schemes.
Separately, Iza engaged active Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) deputies to provide private security for him and caused the deputies, among other things, to obtain court-authorized search warrants and confidential law enforcement information targeting people with whom Iza had financial and personal disputes.
At Iza’s direction, Au created shell corporations and opened bank accounts in the names of those entities. She then used the illicit funds placed into those accounts to pay approximately $1 million to the deputies, mostly in cash, purchase or lease luxury real estate, cars, jewelry, and clothing, pay for recreational activity for Iza and herself valued at nearly $10 million, and acquire approximately $16 million in cryptocurrency for Iza.
Au transferred more than $2.6 million from these various accounts to her personal bank accounts during the period 2020 through 2023, income that she willfully failed to report to the IRS on her federal tax returns.
“[Au] set up the financial infrastructure that enabled Adam Iza to move, spend, and conceal millions of dollars in fraud proceeds while she personally benefited from the wealth,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “Au concealed entities and income from her tax preparer and filed returns reporting only a small fraction of what she had actually received. Those were affirmative acts designed to prevent the IRS from learning the true extent of her income.”
Iza pleaded guilty in January 2025 in Los Angeles federal court to one count of conspiracy against rights, one count of wire fraud, and one count of tax evasion. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for October 5 before Judge Anderson.
Iza is serving a 15-year federal prison sentence for his involvement in an attempted robbery of Bitcoin and a kidnapping in Connecticut in August 2024.
IRS Criminal Investigation and the FBI investigated this matter.
Assistant United States Attorney Maxwell K. Coll of the National Security Division prosecuted this case.
