A 22-year-old California man was sentenced Friday to nearly six years in federal prison for helping launder money from a cryptocurrency theft scheme that prosecutors say stole more than $263 million and funded an extravagant lifestyle of mansions, luxury cars, watches and private travel.
Evan Tangeman, of Newport Beach, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Washington to 70 months in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly also ordered him to serve three years of supervised release.
Tangeman pleaded guilty on Dec. 8, 2025, to participating in a RICO conspiracy. Prosecutors said he admitted helping launder at least $3.5 million for members of the group, marking the ninth guilty plea secured in the investigation.
The scheme began no later than October 2023 and continued through at least May 2025, prosecutors said. Authorities described it as a multi-state operation that grew out of friendships formed on online gaming platforms and included people based in California, Connecticut, New York, Florida and abroad.
Prosecutors said Tangeman, also known as “E,” “Tate” and “Evan|Exchanger,” worked as a money launderer for a group that included database hackers, organizers, target identifiers, callers and burglars who targeted hardware cryptocurrency wallets.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said the group’s conduct was driven by “greed so brazen it borders on the cartoonish,” citing spending on nightclub tabs, Lamborghinis and Rolexes. She said Tangeman not only laundered money for the group but later helped direct efforts to destroy evidence after other defendants were arrested.
According to prosecutors, the stolen cryptocurrency was used to pay for nightclub services costing up to $500,000 per evening, luxury handbags, watches valued from $100,000 to more than $500,000, private jet rentals, security guards and exotic cars worth as much as $3.8 million.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Tangeman converted stolen cryptocurrency into cash and worked with real estate agents in Los Angeles to secure high-end rental homes for members of the group. Some homes rented for $40,000 to $80,000 per month, while the properties themselves were valued from $4 million to nearly $9 million.
Prosecutors said Tangeman also arranged rental homes in Miami after the group moved there in September 2024.
Authorities said Tangeman received benefits from the scheme, including exotic vehicles and commissions that he used to buy luxury goods. The office said co-defendant Malone Lam arranged the purchase of a widebody Lamborghini Urus for Tangeman.
During a search of Tangeman’s residence, law enforcement seized a black 2022 Rolls-Royce Ghost valued at more than $300,000 and a white and black Porsche GT3 RS, prosecutors said.
The case is being investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the FBI’s Washington Field Office and IRS-Criminal Investigation’s Washington, D.C., Field Office, with support from FBI offices in Los Angeles and Miami and U.S. Attorney’s Offices in California, Florida and New Jersey.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Will Hart is prosecuting the case.
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