A 22-year-old man from Newport Beach, California, has been sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for laundering millions of dollars in cryptocurrency proceeds tied to a sprawling multi-state criminal enterprise that allegedly stole more than $263 million in digital assets.
Evan Tangeman was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who also ordered him to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term. Tangeman had pleaded guilty in December 2025 to participating in a RICO conspiracy, admitting that he personally laundered at least $3.5 million on behalf of the criminal organization. His guilty plea was the ninth secured by investigators in the ongoing case.
According to court documents, the criminal enterprise operated from October 2023 through at least May 2025. The group reportedly grew out of friendships formed on online gaming platforms and eventually expanded into an elaborate social engineering operation targeting cryptocurrency holders across multiple states.
When law enforcement searched Tangeman's residence, they seized a number of luxury vehicles, including a 2022 Rolls Royce Ghost valued at more than $300,000 and a Porsche GT3 RS. The seizures offered a glimpse into the lavish lifestyle funded by the stolen cryptocurrency.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro described the criminal enterprise in stark terms, saying the scheme was "built on greed so brazen it borders on the cartoonish." She added that members of the group "stole millions, spent it on half-million-dollar nightclub tabs, Lamborghinis, and Rolexes." Court records show that enterprise members rented luxury homes in Los Angeles and Miami valued between $4 million and nearly $9 million, with monthly rental costs ranging from $40,000 to $80,000.
Prosecutors noted that Tangeman's culpability went beyond money laundering. He was also accused of actively obstructing justice after his co-conspirators were arrested. "When his co-conspirators were arrested, he moved to destroy the evidence. That is consciousness of guilt, and this office and the court have treated that accordingly," Pirro said in a statement. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, which prosecuted the case, indicated that Tangeman's attempts to conceal evidence played a significant role in shaping the sentencing outcome.
Eight other defendants in the same $263 million social-engineering scheme have previously entered guilty pleas to related charges, making Tangeman's sentencing the latest in a series of legal consequences stemming from the investigation.
The case is part of a broader federal push to crack down on cryptocurrency-enabled financial crimes. Federal authorities have ramped up enforcement actions in recent months, including the FBI's seizure of a platform allegedly used to launder $70 million connected to ransomware attacks. Separately, a teenager pleaded guilty in connection with a $245 million Bitcoin heist, underscoring law enforcement's intensified focus on high-value crypto theft and money laundering operations.
Why it matters
The RICO conspiracy charge — typically associated with organized crime — signals that federal prosecutors are treating large-scale crypto theft rings as structured criminal enterprises rather than isolated fraud cases, which carries heavier sentencing exposure for all participants.
Tangeman's attempt to destroy evidence after co-conspirators were arrested was explicitly cited as a sentencing factor, illustrating that obstruction conduct in crypto cases can independently elevate prison terms beyond the underlying financial crime.
The guilty plea was the ninth in the same investigation, indicating that cooperation and sequential plea agreements are a primary tool prosecutors are using to dismantle crypto-focused criminal networks built around social engineering.
