Former Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputy Pleads Guilty to Extortion, Implicates Others in Corruption Scandal

In a stark convergence of law enforcement and criminal enterprise, Michael David Coberg, a former Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) deputy, has entered a guilty plea in what unfolds as a grim tale of corruption and power abuse. According to KTLA, the 44-year-old ex-officer from Eastvale admitted to leveraging his badge to assist Adam Iza, a cryptocurrency figure embroiled in fraud, in an extortion plot against business rivals.

In October 2021, with a variety of firearms on open display, Coberg, while identifying himself as an active deputy, was reported to have helped Iza coerce $127,000 from a victim under the guise of an official interrogation. Following the victim's harrowing ordeal, Coberg left him at a shooting range with Iza, who continued to threaten him at gunpoint for additional payments. These troubling details were drawn from a plea agreement uncovered by a press release from the United States Attorney's Office.

In another disturbing incident, as reported by KTLA, Coberg's machinations were central to the false arrest of a man in September 2021. The elaborate ruse employed by Coberg involved the victim being lured from Miami to Los Angeles by an ex-girlfriend under pretenses, only to be arrested for drug possession after a pre-planned traffic stop.

Complicit in this scheme was another LASD deputy, Christopher Michael Cadman, as per details released by the United States Attorney's Office. He helped set up the fallacious traffic stop, which saw the unwitting victim apprehended with drugs planted in the vehicle. After ensuring the arrest, Coberg drove by the scene, a silent spectator to the deception unfolding, with Iza taking the arrest's photographs from an Escalade's back seat. He later sent a thank-you text to Cadman for his part in the staged arrest, lauding the enjoyment it brought their corrupt benefactor.

Following these admissions, the future for Coberg appears grim - he faces sentencing on February 17, 2026, with potential decades in prison. His accomplice Iza, is also in custody awaiting his own reckoning in the courtroom scheduled for December 15, and Cadman will face his sentence in January 2026. This ongoing investigation by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation serves as a dire reminder of the vulnerabilities in the intersection of law enforcement and criminal enterprise, according to findings from the United States Attorney's Office.