LOS ANGELES — A Newport Beach man has been sentenced to federal prison for laundering money for a group of young con artists who prosecutors said stole $263 million in cryptocurrency and used the loot to purchase luxury cars, rent out mansions and private jets and spend as much as $500,000 at nightclubs.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington sentenced 22-year-old Evan Tangeman to 70 months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty in December. She also ordered him to serve three years of supervised release.

Tangeman admitted to federal authorities that he laundered at least $3.5 million for the group, which scammed more than $263 million in cryptocurrency from investors in the U.S.

Federal authorities said Tangeman, whose monikers included "E," "Tate" and "Evan Exchanger," was one of nine members of a "social engineering crime enterprise" made up of hackers, scammers, residential burglars and crypto money launderers.

Social engineering is a type of fraud scheme used to trick victims into providing scammers with passwords, PINs and other personal information.

Federal investigators said the group impersonated security technicians and employees of cryptocurrency exchange companies such as Coinbase and Gemini to steal from their victims. An associate of the group referred to them as the "crypto kids."

"This criminal enterprise was built on greed so brazen it borders on cartoonish," said Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. "They stole millions, spent it on half-million-dollar nightclub tabs, Lamborghinis, and Rolexes."

Federal authorities said the group formed through online gaming platforms. Its members, including some who were teenagers, lived in California, Connecticut, New York, Florida and in other countries.

Federal authorities said the group had begun its crime spree by October 2023 and continued through at least May 2025.

Earlier this year, one of the members of the group, a 17-year-old, testified against Eric Halem, a former Los Angeles police officer who was convicted last month of robbing $350,000 worth of cryptocurrency from the teen in 2024.

In testifying against Halem, the teen, who was sworn in to testify just under his first name, Daniel, revealed a subculture around newly created crypto wealth. The so-called crypto kids included fixers who set them up with homes, cars, clothes and other luxuries.

Among the fixers was Tangeman, who federal authorities said not only converted the stolen cryptocurrency into cash but worked with real estate agents in Los Angeles to obtain large mansions for members.

They said the group was made up of unemployed young men, often under 20 years old, who feared drawing attention from authorities for renting homes at $40,000 to $80,000 a month with no source of income.

"Some of those homes were valued from $4 million up to nearly $9 million," federal prosecutors said in a news release announcing Tangeman's sentencing.

They said the group also had rental homes in the Hamptons in New York and in Miami.

Federal officials said the money Tangeman laundered was spent by the group to live lavishly, including hundreds of thousands of dollars spent at nightclubs, and luxury handbags valued at tens of thousands of dollars that were given away at nightclub parties. The group also bought luxury clothes and watches that cost up to $500,000. It also had a fleet of luxury cars ranging in value from $100,000 to nearly $4 million.

Federal prosecutors said Tangeman was rewarded well for his services. At least one member arranged for the purchase of a wide-body Lamborghini Urus worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Federal agents seized a black 2022 Rolls-Royce Ghost, valued at more than $300,000, while serving a search warrant at Tangeman's home. They also seized a Porsche GT3 RS.

"Finally, when the first members of the criminal enterprise ... were arrested and the massive scale of their fraud revealed, it was Tangeman who took it upon himself to direct co-defendant Tucker Desmond to destroy digital devices belonging to members of the enterprise," the new release read.

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