A man who operated a fake prize transnational scam has been sentenced to 98 months and fined $700,000.
According to court documents, Jose Alejandro Zuñiga Cano, the man at the heart of the matter, was alleged to have run a Peruvian call center that attempted to defraud 1,100 Spanish-speaking United States residents.
He was also accused of harassing these residents with falsified arrest threats, court proceedings, and immigration consequences. Cano was successfully extradited from Peru in March regarding the telemarketing charges and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in July.
The transnational fraud case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the Justice Department’s Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch.
Peruvian man sentenced for wire and transnational fruad
“The long arm of the American justice system has no limits when it comes to reaching fraudsters who prey on our nation’s most vulnerable populations, to include the elderly and recent immigrants,” said U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida. “We will not allow transnational criminals to use fear tactics and intimidation to steal money from the public we serve. Individuals who defraud American consumers will be brought to justice, no matter where they are located.”
The defendant admitted that he was the owner of a Lima-based contact center. He also pleaded guilty to being the architect of a scheme that harassed Spanish-speaking consumers in the United States.
In this fraud, he falsely informed these 1,100 victims that they had been the recipients of an award of language lessons or computer kits.
He also harassed and wrongfully said that those victims were “contractually obligated to pay large sums to receive the products or they would face legal and judicial repercussions. Zuñiga and his co-conspirators impersonated lawyers, court officials, police officers, and representatives of a supposed “minor crimes court” to intimidate victims and force them to send payments,” according to court documents.
“Today’s sentencing of Jose Alejandro Zuñiga Cano is proof of the dedication between the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to stop at nothing to bring those suspects who victimize our citizens to justice,” said Inspector in Charge Juan A. Vargas of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Miami Division.
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