Newport Beach man sentenced for role in $263 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.