Former LAPD Officer Sentenced for $350K Bitcoin Robbery

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Tuesday sentenced 38-year-old Eric Halem to concurrent life terms plus 15 years in state prison after a jury convicted him of kidnapping and robbery. The judge denied a late request for a new trial.

Prosecutors say Halem and three alleged accomplices entered a Koreatown apartment around 2:30 a.m. on December 28, 2024, using an access code provided by a conspirator who had rented the unit. The men arrived in a Range Rover and a Lamborghini Urus registered to a car rental business tied to Halem, wore vests identifying them as police, handcuffed two victims, forced a transfer of cryptocurrency that moved $350,000 in Bitcoin from a 17-year-old, and took cash and jewelry.

Halem was convicted in March after a two-week trial; jurors returned a verdict in under a day. Superior Court Judge Mildred Escobedo rejected his request for a new trial before imposing concurrent life terms and additional years on related counts. According to the district attorney’s office, Halem will be eligible for parole after seven years.

Halem had served 13 years with the Los Angeles Police Department before leaving the force nearly two years before the raid; he remained a reserve officer at the time. He faces separate allegations, including insurance fraud and a second alleged cryptocurrency robbery prosecutors say occurred days before the Koreatown incident. Those additional charges have not been resolved.

Three other suspects-Luis Banuelos, Pierre Louis and Mishael Mann-were charged in August 2025 with kidnapping for ransom, first-degree residential robbery and home invasion robbery in concert. Each has pleaded not guilty and their trials have not begun. The 17-year-old victim testified under his first name only.

Escobedo told the court the evidence showed a man prepared to use violence out of ‘sheer and utter greed.’ Halem’s mother, Randi Halem, called the verdict ‘a miscarriage of the law.’ Prosecutors noted the teen had built part of his cryptocurrency holdings through deceptive means; the judge said those activities did not justify a violent robbery.

A blockchain security firm verified 52 so-called “wrench attacks” in the first half of 2026, recording losses of about $124.1 million. Authorities have documented other cases in which attackers impersonated officers to force cryptocurrency transfers, and U.S. courts have handed long sentences in several violent crypto extortion cases.