Miami-Dade man pleads guilty to $14 million fraudulent check scheme
Key Points(5)
- A 69-year-old former Miami-Dade County man has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after using fraudulent checks to steal approximately $14 million from thousands of people and businesses, federal prosecutors said.
- Eri Guzman Ortiz pleaded guilty Aug.
- 6 in federal court in South Florida to one count of wire fraud.
- He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov.
- 5 and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
A 69-year-old former Miami-Dade County man has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after using fraudulent checks to steal approximately $14 million from thousands of people and businesses, federal prosecutors said.
Eri Guzman Ortiz pleaded guilty Aug. 6 in federal court in South Florida to one count of wire fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 5 and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
According to court documents, Guzman Ortiz created and deposited approximately $14 million in fraudulent checks into bank accounts belonging to sham companies in the United States.
The checks were used to transfer money from victims’ bank accounts to the accounts of the sham companies without authorization, prosecutors said.
Guzman Ortiz’s scheme allegedly relied on information supplied by a client in Canada, who provided lists containing thousands of people and businesses that were purported to have purchased goods or services from the sham companies and authorized the companies to debit their bank accounts.
Prosecutors said Guzman Ortiz knew the listed individuals and businesses had not made the purported purchases and had not authorized the withdrawals.
He nevertheless used the information to create fraudulent checks and deposit them into accounts controlled by the sham companies, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
“Eri Guzman Ortiz used fraudulent checks totaling approximately $14 million to reach into the bank accounts of thousands of people and businesses who never authorized the transactions,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said.
“He created sham companies and fabricated transactions to make systematic theft look legitimate,” he said.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General.
Federal officials said the investigation remains ongoing.
Guzman Ortiz’s sentencing will be determined by a federal district court judge, who will consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Reding Quiñones, USPIS Inspector in Charge Eric Shen and FDIC-OIG Special Agent in Charge Vincent R. Zehme announced the guilty plea.
