California money laundering offender sentenced to 70 months in prison for involvement in $263 million cryptocurrency theft

Deep Tide TechFlow news: On April 25, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, Evan Tangeman, a 22-year-old man from Newport Beach, California, was sentenced by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. on April 24 (local time) to 70 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release for his role in a cross-state social engineering criminal group and for assisting with money laundering of at least $3.5 million. The criminal group has been operating since October 2023. Using methods such as hacking and social engineering, it stole more than $263 million in cryptocurrency. Many of the group’s members were unemployed youths under 20 or teenagers, and the group originated from online gaming platforms.

Tangeman was responsible for converting the stolen cryptocurrency into fiat currency and for leasing luxury homes for members of the group in places such as Los Angeles and Miami. He was also given luxury cars such as Bentley and Lamborghini as compensation. After the incident, Tangeman also instructed accomplices to destroy digital devices to destroy evidence. The case is being jointly investigated by the FBI Washington office, the Los Angeles and Miami field offices, and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division. So far, 9 people involved have pleaded guilty.