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. They restrained the teenager and his girlfriend and threatened to shoot them if they didn’t give access to a hard drive containing $350,000 worth of bitcoin.

“It is not that I have a higher standard for Mr. Halem (because he used to be a police officer); it is the facts of this case that are an affront to the court and should be an affront to the public,” commented Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mildred Escobedo.

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