Crypto

Newport Beach man sentenced for role in $263 million cryptocurrency scheme

Published

1 month ago

April 27, 2026

Newport Beach man sentenced for role in 3 million cryptocurrency scheme

A Newport Beach man was sentenced to more than five years in prison after federal prosecutors said he laundered at least $3.5 million as part of a multi-state criminal enterprise.

Evan Tangeman, 22, was sentenced in Washington, D.C., Friday, April 24, to five years and 10 months in prison after he pleaded guilty in December to taking part in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) conspiracy in which participants stole more than $263 million in cryptocurrency and used the money to live lavish lifestyles, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement.

Tangeman was the ninth person to plead guilty in connection with the scheme, which prosecutors said began around October 2023 and lasted through at least May 2025. The enterprise, prosecutors said, grew from friendships created through online gaming platforms and included co-conspirators from California, New York, Florida, Connecticut and abroad.

Members of the group included database hackers, organizers, target identifiers, callers and residential burglars who targeted hardware virtual currency wallets, which store cryptocurrency, prosecutors said.

Tangeman, who also went by “Tate,” “E,” and “Evan|Exchanger,” money laundered for the group, helped his co-conspirators take millions from victims and also received money and luxury items like exotic cars for his work, according to the DOJ.

When the first members of the criminal enterprise were arrested, Malone Lam of Los Angeles and Miami and Jeandiel Serrano of Los Angeles, Tangeman told his co-defendant Tucker Desmond of Huntington Beach to destroy digital devices that belonged to enterprise members, prosecutors said.

Using stolen virtual currency, members of the enterprise bought nightclub services sometimes totaling up to $500,000 a night, luxury handbags worth thousands of dollars that were given away at parties and luxury watches worth between $100,000 and $500,000. They also used the stolen money to purchase luxury clothing; rental homes in Los Angeles, the Hamptons and Miami; private jet rentals; private security guards and various exotic cars valued between $100,000 to $3.8 million, according to the DOJ.

Tangeman also converted the cryptocurrency to fiat cash, or money not tied to gold or other assets, with the help of real estate agents in Los Angeles, bought mansions for members of the scheme that were valued between $4 million and $9 million, prosecutors said.

He also arranged homes in Miami when the group of conspirators, who were unemployed men mostly under 20 years old, moved there in September 2024. The men bought the homes because they worried they would draw law enforcement’s attention if they rented large homes for tens of thousands of dollars each month when they had no income, according to the DOJ.

One of Tangeman’s co-conspirators arranged the purchase of a widebody Lamborghini Urus for Tangeman, and when law enforcement executed a search warrant at his home, they found and seized other luxury vehicles, including a 2022 Rolls Royce Ghost valued at more than $300,000 and a Porsche GT3 RS.

Click to comment

Crypto

Decade-Old Bitcoin Wallets Reemerge and Shift $37 Million as BTC Hits 2026 Low

Published

7 hours ago

June 6, 2026

Press Room

Decade-Old Bitcoin Wallets Reemerge and Shift Million as BTC Hits 2026 Low

Key Takeaways

Ancient Bitcoin 2014 Wallet Stirs

A dormant bitcoin ( BTC) address, first seen on Nov. 12, 2014, and untouched ever since, transferred 165.50 BTC this week at block height 952452. After remaining inactive for more than a decade, the Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash (P2PKH) address reemerged onchain, moving its holdings in a single transaction. The owner decided to move this cache amid bitcoin’s latest price downturn as BTC tapped the lowest value of 2026 on Friday.

At the time, the address‘s entire stash of 165.50 BTC was valued at just $60,738. Even after bitcoin’s recent pullback, those same holdings are now worth approximately $10.2 million, illustrating the dramatic 16,693.44% appreciation accumulated during more than a decade of dormancy.

The 2014 wallet that moved 165.50 BTC. Image source: Mempool.space.

The funds migrated from the original P2PKH wallet through a series of newly created Pay-to-Witness-Public-Key-Hash (P2WPKH) addresses before ultimately settling in a P2WPKH address that now holds 204.67 BTC, valued at approximately $12.6 million.

Two 2017 Addresses Shift 434.26 BTC

Following the 2014-era transfer, two wallets dating back to 2017 moved a combined 434.26 BTC. The first transaction took place at block height 952454, transferring 115 BTC valued at approximately $7.1 million from a P2PKH address created on May 9, 2017. The second wallet shifted 319.26 BTC, worth roughly $19.7 million, in a separate transfer. That address too, was first seen on May 9, 2017.

Btcparser.com image of three dormant bitcoin transfers. — The three large and dormant wallets that moved on June 5, 2026, for the first time since the addresses were first funded and created.

On that day, 9 years and 26 days ago in 2017, BTC was trading at $1,709 per coin, placing the value of the holdings at a fraction of their current worth. The latest movements add to a growing list of dormant-era wallets that have resurfaced in 2026, often drawing attention from onchain analysts and market observers.

Onchain Trail Reveals Movement, Not Motive

While the transfers coincided with bitcoin’s recent price weakness, the transactions themselves offer no indication that the coins were sold, as the funds remain visible in newly assigned addresses. However, they may have been offloaded to an over-the-counter (OTC) desk or temporary address from a custodian.

Of course, the identities behind the wallets and the motivations for awakening holdings that sat idle for nearly a decade remain unknown.

Crypto

Nevada attorney general warns of cryptocurrency kiosk scams

Published

18 hours ago

June 6, 2026

Press Room

Nevada attorney general warns of cryptocurrency kiosk scams

CARSON CITY, Nev. (FOX5) — Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford is warning residents about a growing scam involving cryptocurrency kiosks found in gas stations and convenience stores.

The machines, commonly called Bitcoin or crypto ATMs, convert cash into digital currency that can be sent to unknown third parties. The transactions cannot be reversed and are nearly untraceable, making it extremely difficult to recover stolen money.

Scammers typically begin with an unsolicited phone call, text, email or pop-up message that creates a sense of fear and urgency, Ford’s office said. The criminals often impersonate someone the victim would trust, such as a relative or representative of a legitimate organization. They claim an emergency exists that can only be resolved by depositing funds into a cryptocurrency kiosk.

MORE ON FOX5: Scam alert: Fake jail calls, bank spoofing on the rise across Nye County

The scammer then provides instructions about how to complete the transaction, which sometimes include a QR code associated with the scammer’s digital wallet.

According to FBI data cited by AARP, cryptocurrency kiosk scams disproportionately impact older adults. In 2025, cryptocurrency kiosks were used in scams that led to more than $389 million in reported losses.

“One of the most important ways to protect yourself from scams is to stay informed — scammers are consistently changing their tactics to fool you in new ways,” Ford said. “If a person asks you to use a cryptocurrency kiosk to transfer money, stop and consider if the interaction feels above board. When in doubt, follow your gut.”

Nevadans who believe they may have been victims of a scam, including one involving cryptocurrency kiosks, can file a complaint with the Office of the Attorney General.

Crypto

Bitcoin Slides Below $60K as Traders Trigger $1.57B Liquidation Wave Across Crypto

Published

1 day ago

June 5, 2026

Press Room

Bitcoin Slides Below K as Traders Trigger .57B Liquidation Wave Across Crypto

Key Takeaways

Liquidations Pass the Billion-Dollar Mark

Bitcoin plunged below $60,000 on Friday amid a market-wide sell-off that shaved approximately $200 billion from the crypto economy. According to Bitstamp data, the cryptocurrency nosedived to $59,743, briefly widening its losses since June 1 to more than $14,000—a decline of nearly 20% in five days.

While it bounced back to $61,000 shortly after tapping the new year-to-date low, the cryptocurrency was still down by nearly 4% in 24 hours. The drop widened bitcoin’s year-to-date losses to 30% and briefly pushed its market capitalization below $1.2 trillion, a level last seen in October 2024. The bearish sentiment extended to altcoins, some of which logged double-digit losses, driving the crypto economy’s aggregate market cap down to $2.23 trillion.

Meanwhile, the market mayhem pushed liquidations past the $1 billion mark for the fourth time in five days. As expected in a declining market, long bets accounted for a disproportionate share of the leveraged positions erased, making up $1.28 billion of the $1.57 billion total. Bitcoin alone saw $381 million in long positions wiped out, compared with $111 million in shorts.

While a handful of critics attribute bitcoin’s downward spiral to Strategy’s disposal of a mere 32 bitcoins, market analysts argue the scale of the capitulation points to deeper structural vulnerabilities. The sheer velocity of the sell-off suggests a broader institutional exit and systemic liquidations that far outweigh the ripple effects of an otherwise negligible corporate divestment.

However, this alternative view did not stop “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer from accusing Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor of “murdering bitcoin.” Saylor, facing criticism stemming from the sale, responded by publishing a comprehensive essay on X detailing what he calls the “Four Ideologies of Bitcoin.” In the essay, Saylor argues that as bitcoin transitions from a technical experiment to a global asset, its community is dividing into four distinct yet overlapping schools of thought that define its future.

The Four Ideologies of Bitcoin

The first school of thought, championed by maximalists, views bitcoin as a moral and civilizational advance. They emphasize its role as the dominant, incorruptible digital monetary network that provides superior property rights and economic hope to those facing financial misery.

Capitalists, on the other hand, focus on scaling bitcoin by integrating it as “digital capital” into global financial systems. This group advocates for corporate treasuries, institutional custody, and bitcoin-backed credit and securities, arguing that market incentives will ultimately drive the network’s growth and defense.

Saylor identifies technologists as a group that believes the protocol must responsibly and continuously evolve to address future technical threats, such as quantum computing, while improving base-layer privacy, scalability, and usability.

Lastly, the Strategy chairman sees fundamentalists as the guardians of bitcoin’s first principles, such as absolute decentralization, self-custody, running personal nodes, and censorship resistance, aiming to protect the protocol from institutional capture or dilution.

Saylor concluded his essay by arguing that a healthy bitcoin ecosystem requires a synthesis of all four groups. Rather than choosing between purity and adoption, Saylor noted that the network’s ultimate path forward relies on keeping the core protocol sacred and stable while allowing the global economy to build on top of it.