Ex-LAPD Officer Gets Life in Prison After Posing as Police to Steal $350K Worth of BTC

Eric Halem, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer with 13 years of experience, was sentenced for orchestrating a fake police raid that ended with the theft of $350,000 in BTC from a teenage crypto investor.

Halem was sentenced to life in prison plus another 15 years for his role in the violent home invasion, which became one of the most high-profile crypto-related robbery cases in recent years.

Halem remained a reserve officer at the time of the crime and was convicted of kidnapping and robbery after a jury found that he and several accomplices impersonated actual police officers to gain access to the victim’s apartment in late 2024.

Prosecutors argued that the group entered a high-rise apartment in Los Angeles’ Koreatown while wearing police-identifying vests and carrying LAPD-issued handcuffs.