California Woman Sentenced to 18 Months for Hiding More Than $2.6 Million

Iris Rabaya Au was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after transferring more than $2.6 million into personal bank accounts and failing to report the income on her federal tax returns.

Au, 37, of Irvine, California, pleaded guilty in March 2025 to subscribing to a false tax return. The sentence was imposed Sept. 21, 2026, by U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson.

Au also was ordered to pay $1,484,343 in restitution. The court ordered the forfeiture of luxury and high-performance vehicles, designer handbags and three sculptures bearing Adam Iza’s “Godfather” nickname.

Between 2020 and 2023, Au transferred the money from accounts linked to companies she created for Iza into her personal accounts, prosecutors said. She did not report the income on her federal tax returns.

At Iza’s direction, Au created shell corporations and opened bank accounts in their names, prosecutors said. The accounts were used to pay approximately $1 million to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies, mostly in cash, fund nearly $10 million in recreational spending for Iza and Au, and finance approximately $16 million in cryptocurrency purchases for Iza.

Prosecutors also said Au concealed the entities and income from her tax preparer and reported only a small portion of what she had received.

“[Au] set up the financial infrastructure that enabled Adam Iza to move, spend, and conceal millions of dollars in fraud proceeds while she personally benefited from the wealth,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

Iza presented himself as a cryptocurrency businessman and called himself “The Godfather.” Prosecutors said he fraudulently obtained access to Facebook and Meta advertising accounts and credit lines, then sold access to them.

Au’s conviction was for the false-tax-return offense involving unreported income. The case did not establish that she was convicted of Iza’s separate fraud, law-enforcement or kidnapping conduct.

Iza pleaded guilty in January 2025 to conspiracy against rights, wire fraud and tax evasion in Los Angeles federal court. His California sentencing was scheduled for Oct. 5, 2026.

Iza is serving a 15-year federal sentence for his role in an attempted Bitcoin (BTC) robbery and kidnapping in Connecticut in August 2024. The Au case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and the FBI.