Adam Iza grew up far from the Bel-Air mansion where he lived before his arrest in September.

Iza was poor throughout his childhood in Iraq, and as a teenager he borrowed a computer from his uncle and founded a lucrative cryptocurrency trading platform before coming to the United States, his lawyer Josef Sadat said.

But Sadat said that as Iza grew richer, she attracted “the worst bloodsucking characters Southern California had to offer.”

That includes several Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies who were allegedly hired to handle Iza’s criminal bid, according to federal prosecutors.

At least six deputies have been suspended in connection with the case, according to court filings and Sheriff’s Department sources; this number was three more than previously reported. The sources requested anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

The case first came to light two months ago when federal authorities arrested Iza, 24, calling him his “godfather” and charging him with financial crimes and extortion.

Iza, who was charged in October, pleaded not guilty earlier this month and appeared in court on Wednesday. The judge ruled that Iza should remain behind bars while awaiting trial, despite her lawyer’s claims that medical complications from the cosmetic leg lengthening procedure could have led to her death.

Federal authorities said in September that three unnamed lawmakers were involved in extortion schemes with Iza, and the sprawling investigation has continued to grow since then. A fourth member of parliament was also included in the indictment in October. Two sources said last month that sheriff’s officials are looking into the matter, reviewing specific departments’ timelines and asking sharp questions about outside employment.

In late October, the Sheriff’s Department confirmed that “several” more deputies had been suspended. Authorities declined to name them or say how many they were, but three sources told The Times that at least three more lawyers had been suspended, bringing the total to six, and several more were under review.

None of them appear to have been charged, and it is unclear whether any of them have retained an attorney.

Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, declined to comment on whether anyone else has been charged in the case.

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said she “could not comment other than to say the investigation is ongoing.”

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By the time Iza was a teenager, her family had left the Middle East and settled in Missouri.

His lawyer, Sedat, said that after arriving in Los Angeles, Iza developed “a new type of software that acts as a neural network to help trade/predict the crypto market.”

Federal court records trace Iza’s alleged crimes to 2021, when prosecutors say he began paying Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to be hired muscle and help him steal from his enemies.

One of the lawmen, identified in court records as Deputy 1, ran a private security company that Iza allegedly paid more than $100,000 a month to provide “teams of active LASD deputies” to accompany him at all hours of the day.

During a party at Iza’s Bel-Air home in August 2021, his bodyguards, at least one of whom was from law enforcement, held the event planner at gunpoint, according to court records. Allegedly, because Iza was unhappy with the festivities, she took the man’s phone and used it to transfer money to him.

Iza is accused of keeping images of the party planner’s credit cards and other personal information long enough to continue receiving money, eventually draining “tens of thousands of dollars” from the man’s accounts.

According to Iza’s indictment, several weeks after the incident, Deputy 1 contacted a narcotics detective and told him that a confidential informant had claimed large amounts of fentanyl and cocaine were found at the party planner’s home. Sheriff’s deputies later raided the home but found no drugs.

Charging documents, which identify the event planner only by the initials RC, say the conspiracy against him grew to include his romantic partner. Prosecutors did not name or charge the woman, but claimed she was secretly communicating with Iza and used the money Iza gave her to buy drugs, which were later found in RC’s car.

After RC returned from a trip out of town, prosecutors said a sheriff’s deputy, identified in court records as Deputy 4, pulled over while RC and the woman were driving in Paramount on Sept. 27, 2021.

During the stop, the woman allegedly told Deputy 4 that RC had put drugs under the passenger seat of the car. Deputy 4 searched and found cocaine and what appeared to be psilocybin mushrooms.

RC spent several days in jail before the case was dropped due to lack of evidence.

During the traffic stop, the event planner’s romantic partner was allegedly communicating with Iza. The indictment alleges that he gave the deputy a false name, date of birth and phone number, but he was not arrested or named.

Prosecutors said RC texted Iza at one point and claimed she was being set up.

“The cops had you on a watch list for a week, so go file a complaint against them about entrapment. Hahaha. “Worthless loser,” Iza replied, according to the indictment.

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Just before Thanksgiving 2021, Iza hired a private investigator to help him spy on a business partner identified in court records as “EZ.” The Times was able to identify him as Enzo Zelocchi, who described himself as “actor, producer and innovator”.

According to court records, Iza claimed Zelocchi stole a laptop believed to hold millions of dollars of cryptocurrency. But in an interview this week, Zelocchi said the laptop belonged to him.

On November 21, 2021, the two held a meeting. According to Zelocchi, he hoped to get back the money Iza owed him. At one point, Zelocchi was driving with Iza in the backseat when Iza wanted to stop for food at a gas station in Riverside County, according to court records.

As they stood outside the car, an SUV approached and two of Iza’s bodyguards (identified in an incident report as former Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy Ray Dudgeon and former detention assistant Bryan Rawlings) jumped out. One of the men approached with a gun, according to the federal indictment.

Zelocchi said the guards roughed him up and tried to carry him into the SUV. He told The Times that he “managed to escape from the gas station.” He says he told investigators he thought Iza was trying to have him kidnapped.

Dudgeon could not be reached for comment. The person who answered a phone number linked to Rawlings had no comment. None of the guards appear to have been charged in the case.

When the responding Riverside County sheriff’s deputy interviewed Iza, he said he was the one who was afraid of being kidnapped and texted his bodyguards for help.

According to the indictment, after Zelocchi escaped, Iza and his guards took two bags from the trunk of Zelocchi’s car and left.

Over the next four months, Deputy 1 and another member of the L.A. Sheriff’s Department, identified as Deputy 3, repeatedly searched secret law enforcement databases to obtain personal information about Zelocchi, his co-workers and their families, prosecutors said.

“They were starting to attack everyone in my life,” Zelocchi said. “I was literally hiding out in Los Angeles.”

Then, in January 2022, court records say, Deputy 1 asked a judge to approve a warrant for GPS location information needed to track several cell phones, including the one belonging to Zelocchi. According to the criminal complaint, the deputy falsely stated that Zelocchi’s number was connected to a suspect in a firearms investigation.

Zelocchi called the involvement of sheriff’s deputies “corrupt.” Although some MPs have been dismissed, he said he did not see any being detained.

Zelocchi said that those involved in the incident, including MPs, “tried to destroy my reputation physically and mentally”, adding that he was forced to move to Europe as a result of the harassment.

“You don’t understand how much pain I’m in,” he said. “This was a nightmare.”

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In addition to extortion, federal court records accuse Iza of hiding millions of dollars from tax collectors by failing to report his income and funneling money to co-conspirators through shell companies. Some of this money allegedly went towards approximately $64,000 for surgery to lengthen the length of his legs.

This week’s status conference focused on follow-up surgery. When Iza appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge A. Joel Richlin, he was handcuffed with one hand in front of him and his other hand was holding a cane.

Iza’s lawyer, Sedat, told the judge that his client had undergone a “very traumatic” leg lengthening surgery in November 2022, during which his legs were broken.

“This is a very intense procedure that many doctors would not even do ethically,” Sedat said.

Sedat said Iza was due to have surgery to remove leg extension rods within a year of the initial surgery, but this delayed scheduling and he was arrested in September with the rods still in his legs. Sedat said his client is currently dealing with painful boils.

Sadat told the court that Iza’s Nevada-based doctor was “the world’s leading, No. 1 leg lengthening surgeon” and presented a letter from the doctor stating that the rods should be removed.

According to Sedat, Dr. Kevin Debiparshad said that if the procedure was not performed immediately, Iza could suffer serious damage to the tissues, muscles and nerves in her legs.

Cosmetic leg lengthening surgeries, which have reportedly gained popularity, can increase a person’s height by 2 to 6 inches. Sadat said that very few doctors performed the procedure and Debiparshad would be the one to fix Iza’s condition.

“We are facing a 24-year-old boy with a time bomb in his leg,” Sedat told the judge.

Asst. US Atty. Daniel J. O’Brien said he was in talks with the Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service about arranging the surgery in Nevada.

Richlin questioned why Iza wasn’t examined by a specialist to determine what was medically necessary.

“I think there is a shortage of doctors today with sufficient expertise to counsel Mr. Iza and diagnose his condition,” Richlin said.

Sedat requested that Iza be temporarily left with her parents who were in the courtroom and that she be placed under GPS tracking so that the surgery could be performed faster.

Richlin denied the request, saying he “poses a danger to the community,” reiterating that he had previously found Iza to be a flight risk.

Sedat said in his statement after the hearing that he was “disappointed” with the judge’s decision. He called the surgery “urgent and medically necessary” and said a doctor had warned Iza was at risk of death.

“We are racing against time,” Sedat said.