Former LAPD Officer Convicted in Multi-Million Dollar Crypto Heist

A former Los Angeles Police Department officer has been found guilty of kidnapping for ransom and home invasion robbery after stealing cryptocurrency worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The conviction was handed down by a jury on March 2, following an investigation that revealed the group had used LAPD-issued handcuffs to restrain the victim's girlfriend. The incident occurred in December 2024, when Eric Halem and his accomplices entered the teenager's 18th-floor apartment in Koreatown.

The victim, identified as Daniel, testified on the stand that the group threatened him with a gun during the robbery. While the defense argued that investigators had cherry-picked messages to build their case, prosecutors presented GPS location records and messages showing Halem tracking police radio traffic after the theft.