A Newport Beach man has been sentenced to federal prison for laundering money from a group of young crooks who prosecutors say stole $263 million and used the loot to buy luxury cars, rent private jets and spend up to $500,000 at nightclubs.
Last week, US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington sentenced 22-year-old Evan Tangeman to 70 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in December. He also ordered him to serve three years of supervised release.
Tangeman admitted to federal authorities that he received at least $3.5 million from the group, which received more than $263 million in cryptocurrency from US investors.
Federal authorities said Tangeman, whose monikers included “E,” “Tate” and “Evan Exchanger,” was one of nine members of a “social engineering criminal enterprise” made up of hackers, fraudsters, residential burglars and cryptocurrency smugglers.
Social engineering is a type of fraud scheme used to trick victims into giving passwords, PINs and other personal information to fraudsters.
Federal investigators say the group posed as security experts and employees of cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase and Gemini to steal from their victims. His teammate called them “crypto kids.”
“This criminal enterprise is built on greed to the point where it’s absurd and depends on the ridiculous,” said Jeanine Pirro, US attorney for the District of Columbia. “They stole millions, spent it on nightclubs worth half a million, Lamborghinis and Rolexes.”
Government authorities said the group was made up of online gaming platforms. Its members, including some teenagers, lived in California, Connecticut, New York, Florida and other countries.
Federal authorities say the group began committing crimes in October 2023 and continued through at least May 2025.
Earlier this year, one of the group’s members, a 17-year-old, testified against Eric Halem, a former Los Angeles police officer who was convicted last month of stealing $350,000 worth of cryptocurrency from teenagers in 2024.
When he testified against Halem, a teenager, who was sworn to testify under his first name, Daniel, he revealed a subculture related to the newly created crypto wealth. The so-called crypto kids included fixers who put up houses, cars, clothes and other luxuries.
Among the fixers was Tangeman, who federal authorities say not only converted the stolen cryptocurrency into cash but also worked with real estate agents in Los Angeles to find members large homes.
They said that this group includes unemployed youths, always under twenty years of age, who are afraid of being noticed by the authorities by renting houses for up to $40,000 to $80,000 a month without money.
“Some of those homes ranged in price from $4 million to nearly $9 million,” federal prosecutors said in a news release announcing Tangeman’s sentence.
They said the group has rental properties in the Hamptons in New York and Miami.
Federal officials said Tangeman’s money was used by the group to live lavishly, including hundreds of thousands of dollars spent at nightclubs, and thousands of dollars worth of luxury bags donated to nightclub events. The group also bought luxury clothes and watches worth up to $500,000. It also had a number of luxury cars ranging from $100,000 to nearly $4 million.
Federal prosecutors say Tangeman was well-rewarded for his services. At least one member planned the purchase of a wide-body Lamborghini Urus worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Federal agents seized a black 2022 Rolls-Royce Ghost, valued at more than $300,000, when they served a search warrant at Tangeman’s home. They also seized a Porsche GT3 RS.
“Finally, when the first members of the criminal enterprise … were arrested and the extent of their fraud was revealed, it was Tangeman who took it upon himself to direct the defendant Tucker Desmond to destroy the digital devices of the members of the enterprise,” reads the new.
