The verdict came after less than one full day of jury deliberations at Los Angeles County Superior Court. Halem, 38, served 13 years with the LAPD before departing in 2022, though he retained reserve officer status at the time of the crime. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 31, 2026.

What Happened

At approximately 2:00 AM on December 28, 2024, Halem and five associates entered the victim's apartment using an access code obtained from a co-conspirator who had previously rented the unit to the teenager, identified in court only as "Daniel."

The crew arrived in a Lamborghini Urus rented by co-defendant Gabby Ben and a Range Rover, according to prosecutors.

Once inside, they used LAPD-issued handcuffs to restrain Daniel and his girlfriend. Prosecutors told the court that the group threatened to shoot the boy in the foot and waterboard him if he refused to hand over his wallet credentials. The entire operation took less than 25 minutes. The Bitcoin was stored on a storage device inside a safe.

After the robbery, Halem monitored police radio traffic and sent text messages that prosecutors said showed knowledge that accomplices were talking to authorities.

Both Halem and co-defendant Gabby Ben, 51, had pleaded not guilty and were denied bail. Ben had been twice convicted of fraud and was previously deported to Israel.

Prosecutors alleged ties between Ben and Israeli organized crime figures with connections to the Abergil syndicate in Los Angeles. Prosecutors further identified Moshe Matsri, also known as "Moshe the Religious," in court documents as the Los Angeles leader of the Israeli underground.

Ben has not yet stood trial.

Defense attorneys described the investigation as "lazy and careless," pointing to GPS data from Halem's luxury vehicle rental business, DriveLA, as evidence that he had nothing to hide. Defense counsel also challenged the credibility of the teenage victim at trial. The jury was not persuaded.

The Wrench Attack Pattern

Security researchers use the term "wrench attack" to describe physical coercion used to extract cryptocurrency access. The phrase derives from a cartoon depicting a cryptocurrency theft via blunt force, widely shared in the security research community and cited in analysis by TRM Labs.

What makes the Halem case notable is the use of actual law enforcement credentials and equipment to add apparent legitimacy to the raid.

The frequency of these attacks is rising sharply. Verified incidents globally reached 72 in 2025, according to reporting by BitcoinKE drawing on the Skynet Report. Earlier reporting by Fortune had logged 24 verified cases in 2024. Researchers across multiple reports agree the trend is accelerating. In January 2025 alone, researchers logged 8 incidents. Chainalysis flagged in its mid-year crime update that 2025 was on pace to record twice as many physical crypto attacks as any prior year.

Bitcoin was trading at approximately $68,996 as of March 3, 2026, up from $66,195 the previous day. Cases like these reflect the continued financial incentive for physical cryptocurrency crime, as significant balances remain accessible through coercion regardless of short-term price movements.

What This Means Outside the United States

The attack model used in Los Angeles is not geographically limited. In December 2025, Muhammad Arsalan, a 23-year-old Pakistani crypto influencer, was kidnapped by a group of roughly eight individuals and forced to surrender approximately $340,000 in Tether (a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar).

The structure of that attack closely mirrors the Halem case: an identifiable target, a coordinated team, and coercive extraction of wallet access.

In Uganda, a crypto holder named Festo Ivaibi was surrounded by three vehicles and approached by five armed individuals, some wearing apparent military uniforms, near the Kampala waterside.

The police impersonation element reappeared in a different context. Chainalysis data identifies Central and South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe as among the fastest-growing regions for wrench attack victimization in 2025.

Africa recorded only two verified incidents in the same period but showed a year-over-year increase. The low absolute number likely reflects lower visible wealth concentration rather than lower underlying risk.

The Treasure NFT Ponzi scheme, documented in the Chainalysis 2026 Scams Report, targeted retail cryptocurrency holders in Pakistan and India. In Nigeria, the separate CBEX scheme played a similar role. Both cases indicate that large pools of holders with meaningful on-chain balances have been exposed to criminal networks.

TRM Labs and Chainalysis recommend a consistent set of practical responses for cryptocurrency holders. Holders should avoid publicly disclosing wallet balances or storage methods, particularly on social media. Multi-signature wallets (those requiring approval from more than one key holder to complete a transaction) and time-lock mechanisms (which delay transactions by a set period) reduce the immediate value of coercion because the attacker cannot walk away with funds instantly. In jurisdictions where law enforcement accountability is limited, the conviction in this case is a reminder that physical crypto crime in lower-surveillance environments carries even less risk of prosecution for perpetrators.

What Comes Next

Halem's sentencing hearing is set for March 31, 2026. The Gabby Ben trial remains pending. Additional details about how the criminal network identified the teenage victim and sourced intelligence about his holdings may surface during those proceedings.

The broader crime figures provide the backdrop: Chainalysis reported $3.4 billion stolen via on-chain hacks in 2025 (a figure covering digital intrusions and separate from physical theft statistics) and $154 billion in total illicit crypto flows. The Halem case sits at the intersection of organized crime, institutional trust, and the very physical consequences of publicly visible digital wealth.