Crooked Cops Stolen Laptops the Ghost of UGNazi Krebs on Security

pA California man accused of failing to pay taxes on tens of millions of dollars allegedly earned from cybercrime also paid local police officers hundreds of thousands of dollars to help him extort intimidate and silence rivals and former business partners the government alleges KrebsOnSecurity has learned that many of the mans alleged targets were members of UGNazi a hacker group behind multiple highprofile breaches and cyberattacks back in 2012ppA photo released by the government allegedly showing Iza posing with several LASD officers on his payrollppA federal complaint PDF filed last week said the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI has been investigating Los Angeles resident Adam Iza Also known as Assad Faiq and The Godfather Iza is the founder of a cryptocurrency investment platform called Zort that advertised the ability to make smart trades based on artificial intelligence technologyppBut the feds say investors in Zort soon lost their shorts after Iza and his girlfriend began spending those investments on Lamborghinis expensive jewelry vacations a 28 million home in Bel Air even cosmetic surgery to extend the length of his legsppThe complaint states the FBI started looking at Iza after receiving multiple reports that he had on his payroll several active deputies with the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department LASD Izas attorney did not immediately respond to requests for commentppThe complaint cites a letter from an attorney for a victim referenced only as EZ who was seeking help related to an extortion and robbery allegedly committed by Iza The government says that in March 2022 three men showed up at EZs home and tried to steal his laptop in an effort to gain access to EZ cryptocurrency holdings online A police report referenced in the complaint says three intruders were scared off when EZ fired several handgun rounds in the direction of his assailantsppThe FBI later obtained a copy of a search warrant executed by LASD deputies in January 2022 for GPS location information on a phone belonging to EZ which shows an LASD deputy unlawfully added EZs mobile number to a list of those associated with an unrelated firearms investigationppDamn my guy actually filed the warrant Iza allegedly texted someone after the location warrant was entered Thats some serious shit to do for someonerisking a 24 years career I pay him 280k a month for complete resources Theyre activedutyppThe FBI alleges LASD officers had on several previous occasions tried to kidnap and extort EZ at Izas behest The complaint references a November 2021 incident wherein Iza and EZ were in a car together when Iza asked to stop and get snacks at a convenience store While they were still standing next to the car a van with several armed LASD deputies showed up and tried to force EZ to hand over his phone EZ escaped unharmed and alerted 911ppEZ appears to be short for Enzo Zelocchi a selfdescribed actor who was featured in an ABC News story about a home invasion in Los Angeles around that same time as the March 2022 home invasion in which Zelocchi is quoted as saying at least two men tried to rob him at gunpoint well revisit Zelocchis acting credits in a momentppOne of many self portraits published on the Instagram account of Enzo ZelocchippThe criminal complaint makes frequent references to a coconspirator of Iza CC1 his girlfriend at the time who allegedly helped Iza run his businesses and spend the millions plunked down by Zort investors We know what EZ stands for because Izas girlfriend then was a woman named Iris Au and in November 2022 she sued Zelocchi for allegedly stealing Izas laptopppThe complaint says Iza also harassed a man identified only as TW and refers to TW as one of two Americans currently incarcerated in the Philippines for murder In December 2018 a then 21yearold Troy Woody Jr was arrested in Manila after he was spotted dumping the body of his dead girlfriend Tomi Masters into a local riverppWoody is accused of murdering Masters with the help of his best friend and roommate at the time Mir Islam aka JoshTheGod referred to in the Iza complaint as MI Islam and Woody were both core members of UGNazi a hacker collective that sprang up in 2012 and claimed credit for hacking and attacking a number of highprofile websitesppIn June 2016 Islam was sentenced to a year in prison for an impressive array of crimes including stalking people online and posting their personal data on the Internet Islam also pleaded guilty to reporting dozens of phony bomb threats and fake hostage situations at the homes of celebrities and public officials Islam participated in a swatting attack against this author in 2013ppTroy Woody Jr left and Mir Islam are currently in prison in the Philippines for murderppIn December 2022 Troy Woody Jr sued Iza Zelocchi and Zort alleging PDF Iza and Zelocchi were involved in a 2018 home invasion at his residence wherein Woody claimed his assailants stole laptops and phones containing more than 200 million in cryptocurrenciesppWoodys complaint states that Masters also was present during his 2018 home invasion as was another core UGNazi member Eric CosmoTheGod Taylor CosmoTheGod rocketed to Internet infamy in 2013 when he and a number of other hackers set up the Web site exposeddotsu which published the address Social Security numbers and other personal information of public figures including the former First Lady Michelle Obama the thendirector of the FBI and the US attorney general The group also swatted many of the people they doxedppExposed was built with the help of identity information obtained andor stolen from ssndob dot ruppIn 2017 Taylor was sentenced to three years probation for participating in multiple swatting attacks including the one against my home in 2013ppThe complaint against Iza says the FBI interviewed Woody in Manila where he is currently incarcerated and learned that Iza has been harassing him about passwords that would unlock access to cryptocurrencies The FBIs complaint leaves open the question of how Woody and Islam got the phones in the first place but the implication is that Iza may have instigated the harassment by having mobile phones smuggled to the prisonersppThe government suggests its case against Iza was made possible in part thanks to Izas propensity for ripping off people who worked for him The complaint cites information provided by a private investigator identified only as KC who said Iza hired him to surveil Zelocchi but ultimately refused to pay him for much of the workppKC stands for Kenneth Childs who in 2022 sued Iris Au and Zort PDF for theft by deception and commercial disparagement after it became clear his private eye services were being used as part of a scheme by the Zort founders to intimidate and extort others Childs complaint says Iza clawed back tens of thousands of dollars in payments hed previously made as part of their contractppThe government also included evidence provided by an associate of Izas named only as RC who was hired to throw a party at Izas home According to the feds Iza paid the associate 50000 to craft the event to his liking but on the day of the party Iza allegedly told RC he was unhappy with the event and demanded half of his money backppWhen RC balked Iza allegedly surrounded the man with armed LASD officers who then extracted the payment by seizing his phone The government says Iza kept RCs phone and spent the remainder of his bank balanceppA photo Iza allegedly sent to Tassilo Heinrich immediately after Heinrichs arrest on unsubstantiated drug chargesppThe FBI said that after the incident at the party Iza had his bribed sheriff deputies pull RC over and arrest him on phony drug charges The complaint includes a photo of RC being handcuffed by the police which the feds say Iza sent to RC in order to intimidate him even further The drug charges were later dismissed for lack of evidenceppThe government alleges Iza and Au paid the LASD officers using Zelle transfers from accounts tied to two different entities incorporated by one or both of them Dream Agency and Rise Agency The complaint further alleges that these two entities were the beneficiaries of a business that sold hacked and phished Facebook advertising accounts and bribed Facebook employees to unblock ads that violated its terms of serviceppThe complaint says Iza ran this business with another individual identified only as TH and that at some point TH had personal problems and checked himself into rehab TH told the FBI that Iza responded by stealing his laptop and turning him in to the governmentppKrebsOnSecurity has learned that TH in this case is Tassilo Heinrich a man indicted in 2022 for hacking into the ecommerce platform Shopify and leaking the user database for Ledger a company that makes hardware wallets for storing cryptocurrenciesppHeinrich pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time served three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution to Shopify Upon his release from custody Heinrich told the FBI that Iza was still using his account at the public screenshot service Gyazo to document communications regarding his alleged bribing of LASD officersppProsecutors say Iza and Au portrayed themselves as glamorous and wealthy individuals who were successful social media influencers but that most of that was a carefully crafted facade designed to attract investment from cryptocurrency enthusiasts Meanwhile the UK tabloids reported this summer that Au was dating Davide Sanclimenti the 2022 cowinner on the dating reality show Love IslandppAu was featured on the July 2024 cover of Womenpreneur Middle EastppRecall that we promised to revisit Mr Zelocchis claimed acting credits Despite being briefly listed on the Internet Movie Data Base imdbcom as the most awarded science fiction actor of all time its not clear whether Mr Zelocchi has starred in any real moviesppEarlier this year an Internet sleuth on Youtube showed that even though Zelocchis IMDB profile has him earning more awards than most other actors on the platform here he is holding a Youtube top viewership award Zelocchi is probably better known as the director of the movie once rated the absolute worst scifi flick on IMDB A 2015 work called Angels Apocalypse Most of the videos on Zelocchis Instagram page appear to be brief clips some of which look more like a commercial for mens cologne than scenes from a real movieppA Reddit post from a year ago calling attention to Zelocchis scifi film Angels Apocalypse somehow earning more audience votes than any other movie in the same genreppIn many ways the crimes described in this complaint and the various related civil lawsuits would prefigure a disturbing new trend within Englishspeaking cybercrime communities that has bubbled up in the past few years The emergence of violenceasasservice offerings that allow cybercriminals to anonymously extort and intimidate their rivalsppFound on certain Telegram channels are solicitations for IRL or In Real Life jobs wherein people hire themselves out as willing to commit a variety of physical attacks in their local geographic area such as slashing tires firebombing a home or tossing a brick through someones windowppMany of the cybercriminals in this community have stolen tens of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency and can easily afford to bribe police officers KrebsOnSecurity would expect to see more of this in the future as young cryptorich cybercriminals seek to corrupt people in authority to their advantagepp
This entry was posted on Monday 30th of September 2024 0533 PM
ppSo heres a link to the Iris Au cover story its only 8 paragraphs long It has 0 comments and literally NONE of the businesses shes allegedly started are named NONE of the many industries shes conquered are named and virtually NONE of the causes she supports are actually namedtotal paid for fluff piece actually worse its one of the most lacking pieces Ive ever read Way worse that PR Newswire sponsored BS content that saturates the internet here in the USA
httpswomenpreneurmecomthestoryofirisauabusinessleaderandhelperofpeopleppIriss journey began with just one startup a new business she created from scratch From there she didnt stop She went on to create many more businesses in different industries showing her talent and creativity But Iriss success is not just about making money She cares deeply about making the world a better place She supports causes that are important to her like education healthcare and taking care of the environmentppThat whole site is suspiciously empty of any real info Ive been thumbing randomly through their magazine and every article shows 0 for comments but there isnt even a way to actually leave a comment And the right section on any given page consists of a Search field Recent Posts list and a Categories list then theyre repeated again to fill up space I guess And whether or not I have my adblocker on the pages look exactly the same The only difference is that with the adblocker on 12 tracking site links are blocked The only thing that looks like an ad on any given page is an Audi short from YouTube at the bottom of that weird repeated right section with a link to Audi Dubais site but its just a plain link without the typical attribution codeppKrebs you forgot one of the key guys in this storyppMILAD SARWARI aka NotSpoof aka HackistanppAdam Izas Partner in CrimeppGive him the rest of the story and maybe he will write a followup article Isnt there a connection to the Path Network crypto scam tooppCrazy how much power money has over law enforcement If cops can be bought so easily it really makes you wonder how much we can trust the systemppI dontppLASD are gangsters with badgesppAnd no one in LA is at all surprised Its not even a secretpphttpsknocklacomtraditionofviolencelasdganghistoryppHow many perps are in this story I lost count Also how did they game IMDB Did I miss somethingppBrian thank you for this article very good and quite scary reading Amazing how far this person got with their exploits and how he basically gave a sht about his own associates Just wowppA nasty bunch but the LEO corruption is the key to the story
Has there been a state or fed investigation of the local LEOsppThere wont be this kind of thing is usually swept under the rug There will be a few scapegoats tossed to the wolves and a few mandatory retirements but nothing seriousppThe corruption of the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department is no surprise to anyone that follows LA news It gets a little attention by the big media outlets and deepdives by smaller outletsppSee robs earlier comment
httpskrebsonsecuritycom202409crookedcopsstolenlaptopstheghostofugnazicomment616859ppOne of the very few reports that I found hard to followppyes this a tldr would be helpfulppyes this a tldr would be helpfulppyes this a tldr would be helpfulppThe most disturbing part of the story is the corrupt sheriff deputies Not that it should be a surprise when it comes to LASD I hope long prison terms are forthcomingppThis keeps adding to my pile of evidence that crypto is too associated with criminals allowing them to make money much more easily than if crypto were outlawedppAgreedppI cant see any reason to mess with crypto unless I want to pay off some scammers to make life easier on themppOddly enough I do have a bitcoin wallet just in case someone wants to accidentally send it some money So far it is still sitting at 000ppThe way I look at it is if I have my money at the local bank and lose my info I can go over there and sort it out with little effort and Ill still have my money But if I have my money in crypto and I lose my info I lose all my moneyppWhat a confusing story Not the journalism its spot on I just dont understand the big picture So its a bunch of wannabe script kiddie cybercriminals from yesterdecade now turned actual fraudsters pitting actual law enforcement against eachother Swatting but with more class Who is Iza and where does this money come from surely not just a spoiled rich child of a prince or banker Part 2 on the way ppGreat article Like you Brian I was also stalked swatted by some of these people and their associates That they were paying LA sheriffs deputies to fake arrests is interesting and explains some things With these particular people you name the game seems to have been to accumulate and flaunt unearned wealth For every one at the top of the heap there were so many involved in or caught up in the scams or hangerson further down the fringes Lots of them were stalkers conspiracy theorists substance abusers crypto scammers andor allaround crazy people Many were or are people trying to make money by harming others by some means or other As Tomi Masters and others found out getting involved with these people can be disastrous and deadly Speaking up about them makes one a target as you found out I had been wondering what happened to the two in prison in the Philippines I am not sure I follow the story some other crypto people sent them phones to harass them in prison Maybe I need to reread the storyppTwice in the story Manilla is referred to The capital of the Philippines is ManilappThere are so many rich rabbit holes in this articleppCheck out Enzo Zelocchi on Youtube Hes got a channel with his movies paytoplay interviews and fake fan base Youtube channelsppThen the much darker rabbit hole is the Troy WoddyMir Islam story httpswwwbuzzfeednewscomarticlejosephbernsteintomimastersdowntherabbitholeigoppWell I tried to go down the rabbit hole but I cannot find anything about this after Nov 2019 Does anybody know if they were convictedppEnzo does indeed have IMDb resume weighted toward production Joe Bob says Check it outppkrebs your writing lately has been all over the place and difficult to followppcanm you please write about malone the la guy that stole over 200 mil and was spending 1 million per night in the clubppJust another reminder that the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department is nothing more than a criminal gangppSimply amazing Who owns the rights to this story I smell a movie ppShould release the cops names and faces Theyre public servants theyre supposed to be held to a higher standard than the rest of usppThe story doesnt cover it but these cops were getting paid in their and their family members PERSONAL bank accounts DIRECTLY from Iza and his girlfriend They werent concerned with laundering or hiding it at all The original complaint also mentions tax evasion so Im guessing the IRS figured out this shtick before the public corruption squad within the FBI did The fact it took from 2021 until now for this to get uncovered is extremely pathetic and fortunately for these crooked cops this wont be broadcast on any major news outlets just another day in perfect America Maybe in a couple years well have traffic stop shootout guaranteed death services on telegram channelsppThe front page of The Secret Files looks like a diddler bait site LOLppI pay him 280k a month for complete resources Theyre activeduty
Recommended reading is Left of Bang which helps with observation Him There is more to this than meets the eye and the elevation may need to be raised Think also that in the big scheme of things who is this guy anyhow If this is going on for an individual like this maybe a tuna in the food chain whats going on for the big fish and whales If youre a shrimp in that pond you better be of the preying mantis kind or be scaredppTheft of cryptocurrency is to me a hilariously abstract concept a kind of victimless crime criminals against criminals And why did these victims not lock their phones or keep their Swissblockchain number printout in the freezer like someone with half a brainppLamborghinis expensive jewelry vacations a 28 million home in Bel Air even cosmetic surgery to extend the length of his legsppLegs Hm Im just saying An explanation would be in order noppFunny our network security software indicates there are problems with the security certificate for the womenpreneurmedotcom website as other commenters had noted strange things If I ignore the certificate warning the site is further intercepted by our security software indicating its a known spam URL Sounds like a fake magazine webzine setup to lure in more folks with moneyppThe Instagram page with the YouTube viewership award has 1337xxx likes aka leet clearly that is also fakedbottedppSometimes I feel that life in the United States just blows chunksppMaybe for you thats trueppCrazy broppSo early retirement option put on the table as first option for the local police involvedppImagine all the million dollar scams we never hear aboutppAm I the only one that finds it funny Enzo Zelocchi is wearing the exact same Rolex watch that Adam Iza stole from Troy Woody Look at Enzos instagram and look at Troys Instagram to match the model Cant say that I feel bad that his partner in crime got shorted just more so shocked that the feds didnt pick up Enzo with that scumbagppNeed More Popcorn Forget HuluppI think cosmo is deadppComments are closedppMailing ListppSearch KrebsOnSecurityppRecent PostsppStory CategoriesppWhy So Many Top Hackers Hail from Russiap