Evan Tangeman, 22, of Newport Beach, California, pleaded guilty today in connection with his role in a multi-state conspiracy that used social engineering to steal hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency from victims throughout the United States, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.
Tangeman is the ninth defendant to plead guilty in this investigation.
Tangeman pleaded to participating in a RICO conspiracy before U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly and admitted that he helped to launder at least $3.5 million for members of the enterprise.
Judge Kollar-Kotelly scheduled sentencing for April 24, 2026.
The Court also unsealed the Second Superseding Indictment, which charges three additional defendants with their roles in the Social Engineering Enterprise (SE Enterprise). Nicholas Dellecave, also known as “Nic,” and “Souja,” Mustafa Ibrahim, also known as “Krust,” and Danish Zulfiqar, also known as “Danny,” and “Meech,” were all charged with RICO conspiracy along with the remaining defendants.
Dellecave was arrested in Miami on Dec.3, 2025. Zulfiqar and Ibrahim were arrested in Dubai on related charges.
According to the second superseding Indictment, the enterprise began no later than October 2023 and continued through at least May 2025. It grew from friendships formed on online gaming platforms and comprised individuals based in California, Connecticut, New York, Florida, and abroad.
Tangeman was a money launderer for the group, which also included database hackers, organizers, target identifiers, callers, and residential burglars targeting hardware-based virtual currency wallets.
According to court documents, members of the enterprise used stolen databases to target victims for cryptocurrency thefts. They then used the stolen virtual currency to purchase, among other things, nightclub services ranging up to $500,000 per evening, luxury handbags valued in the tens of thousands of dollars that were given away at nightclub parties, luxury watches valued between $100,000 and $500,000, luxury clothing valued in the tens of thousands of dollars, rental homes in Los Angeles, the Hamptons, and Miami, private jet rentals, a team of private security guards, and a fleet of at least 28 exotic cars ranging in value from $100,000 to $3.8 million.
The second superseding Indictment alleges that on Aug. 18, 2024, Tangeman’s co-conspirator Malone Lam, Danish Zulfiqar, and others contacted a victim in the District of Columbia and, through communications with that victim, fraudulently obtained over 4,100 Bitcoin – valued then at $263 million, and valued this week at more than $368 million.
Tangeman first met the group members in late 2023, when Lam and others moved to Los Angeles and needed assistance finding and paying for rental homes using stolen cryptocurrency. Tangeman used a bulk-cash converter to exchange stolen cryptocurrency for fiat currency to purchase rental homes, some renting for between $40,000 and $80,000 per month. Tangeman also had false names listed on the leases to conceal ownership of the homes. Tangeman also rented homes for the group in Miami. During an August 2024 exchange, following the theft from the DC victim, Tangeman helped Lam obtain approximately $3 million in fiat cash in exchange for stolen cryptocurrency to fund a rental home.
Following Lam’s arrest in Miami on Sept. 18, 2024, Tangeman accessed the home security systems to capture screenshots of FBI agents searching the residences. Tangeman also asked another enterprise member to travel to Lam’s Los Angeles home, retrieve digital devices, and destroy them.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is investigating this case for the District of Columbia, the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and the IRS-Criminal Investigation Washington D.C. Field Office. Significant investigative and operational support was provided by the FBI’s Los Angeles and Miami field offices as well as the United States Attorney’s Officers in the Central District of California, Southern District of Florida, and the District of New Jersey.
The matter is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kevin Rosenberg, Co-Chief of the Fraud, Public Corruption, and Civil Rights Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
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