They got here for him in boardrooms, again alleys, and browser tabs. And when these angles failed, they tried handcuffs solid in a courtroom. The upcoming thriller Checkmate re-creates that gauntlet, however the true screenplay lives in a 157-page federal grievance—Case No. 2:24-cv-09601—now shifting by means of the U.S. District Courtroom in Los Angeles. Its reveals learn like a nightmarish file: hacked onerous drives, falsified warrants, wiretapped jail calls, armed kidnaping makes an attempt, homicide conspiracy, armed house invasion and extra.
The Trojan Coder
The prologue begins in 2018, inside a WeWork in West Hollywood. Producer-entrepreneur Enzo Zelocchi was assembling A-Medicare, a blockchain-driven, single-payer well being platform bundled with its personal crypto token. He employed “full-stack genius” Troy Woody Jr. to shine the undertaking’s white paper. Woody signed a strict NDA—then tunneled straight into the servers.
Based on the lawsuit, Woody’s entry to inner comms grew to become the syndicate’s roadmap: he siphoned digital foreign money pockets addresses, Slack backups, and dev keys, forwarding the whole lot to fellow UGNAZI hacker Mir Islam (on the time a fugitive for the US authorities). The pair—serving time for homicide within the Metro Manila District Jail within the Philippines—used contraband telephones and laptops to beam intel to ringleader Adam Iza (a/okay/a Ahmed Faiq, now a responsible plea on document) and his girlfriend Iris Au (responsible plea). That cache grew to become a blueprint for extortion—and a success checklist topped by 4 Hollywood names: Steven Spielberg, Margot Robbie, Todd Philips, and Enzo Zelocchi himself.
Badges for Hire
To hunt A-list prey in Los Angeles, Iza’s cell wanted native muscle. The grievance names a rogues’ gallery contained in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Division:
- Eric Chase Saavedra – detective, now felon (responsible plea)
- Richard Dudgeon – ex-deputy
- Dean Bryan Rawlings – lively deputy (suspended)
- Christopher & Michael Quintero – deputy & civilian brother
Working with Personal Investigator Kenneth Childs of Paramount Investigative Providers in Los Angeles, the deputies pulled StingRay dumps, tower-dump dragnets, and DMV information underneath fraudulent warrants. Judges—unknowingly misled—signed off, handing the syndicate real-time location pings for each goal. It’s alleged that Kenneth Childs of Paramount Investigative Providers was utilized by Adam Iza to spy the victims prior the prison assaults and extra.
From Surveillance to Shotguns
The primary strike got here in November 2021: a botched kidnapping and armed theft at an Arco fuel station on Zelocchi. Subsequent, the March 30, 2022, home-invasion try—three gunmen breaching Zelocchi’s door earlier than fleeing underneath return fireplace.
Bodily terror bled into digital warfare:
- Summer season 2022 Disney-Instagram hack: racist slurs posted underneath @DavidDo to border Zelocchi’s freelancer, David Do.
- TMZ payoff: editors accepted funds for smear headlines towards Zelocchi utilizing a bogus lawsuit.
- Wikipedia purge: paid insiders yanked Zelocchi’s web page in a single day.
- YouTube barrage: a Las Vegas creator (now a defendant) dropped three defamatory and slanderous movies to run a prison extortion.
- IMDb infiltration (in 2024): Woody, utilizing faux credentials and a smuggled laptop computer, deleted movie credit and injected sabotage trivia.
The Authorized Squeeze
With reputations wobbling however wallets nonetheless closed, Iza’s crew weaponized paperwork. Two unethical attorneys filed three meritless civil fits, hoping discovery subpoenas would expose Zelocchi’s digital belongings keys and use the court docket system as a weapon to proceed the extortion. Judges dismissed each declare, however the clock stored ticking.
Counter-Transfer: RICO on the Desk
Zelocchi counter-punched. His personal submitting cites RICO (18 U.S.C. § 1962), the Laptop Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. § 1030), California Penal Code § 502, plus defamation and conspiracy counts. He handed brokers chat transcripts, GPS strings, decrypted jail calls and extra. The proof cracked the inside circle: Saavedra flipped; jail forensics tied Woody and Islam to reside prison actions whereas incarcerated; Iza’s responsible plea cemented the ISIS–UGNAZI connection.
What This Movie Actually Reveals Us
This saga is a case research in how state surveillance tech can collapse right into a black-market service when crooked officers promote their entry and get employed by an ISIS terrorist from Iraq with a home prison document. 4 marquee artists had been seconds from turning into headlines; numerous others by no means knew they had been pinging throughout a unclean deputy’s laptop computer.
Checkmate (now in growth) will dramatize the chase, however keep in mind: the jump-cuts and dolly photographs are shadows of real transcripts, sworn underneath penalty of perjury. By refusing ransom—digital or literal—Enzo Zelocchi compelled a prison enterprise out of the darkish and right into a docket. In doing so, he protected Spielberg, Robbie, Philips, and maybe the following title that may have surfaced in Iza’s Telegram chats.
When the movie lastly rolls credit, the viewers will head for popcorn refills. In actual life, the story retains scrolling by means of PACER filings, asset-forfeiture ledgers, and the lengthy audit of each badge that blinked pink as a substitute of blue.
