A former Los Angeles Police Department officer was sentenced to life plus 15 years in state prison for his role in a kidnapping and robbery case in which a small bitcoin fortune was stolen from a teenager, officials announced Tuesday.
The Dec. 28, 2024, incident occurred just after 2:30 a.m. when 38-year-old Eric Halem and three other men, one of whom is reportedly tied to Israeli organized crime groups, posed as police officers executing a search warrant at a high-rise Koreatown apartment rented by the teenager.
During his March trial, prosecutors, including L.A. County Deputy District Attorney Jane Brownstone, said the men drove to the apartment in a green Range Rover and an orange Lamborghini Urus owned by Halem’s luxury car rental company, Drive L.A…