MIAMI — A 69-year-old Miami-Dade County man pleaded guilty to wire fraud for orchestrating a scheme that used approximately $14 million in fraudulent checks to steal money from the bank accounts of thousands of people and businesses who never authorized the transactions.
Eri Guzman Ortiz created and deposited the fraudulent checks into bank accounts held by sham companies in the United States, according to court documents filed in the Southern District of Florida. A client in Canada sent Guzman Ortiz lists of thousands of individuals and businesses who had purportedly made purchases from the sham companies and agreed to have their accounts debited — none of which was true.
“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,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “He created sham companies and fabricated transactions to make systematic theft look legitimate. This guilty plea reflects our commitment, alongside the Fraud Section, USPIS, and FDIC-OIG, to protect the integrity of our financial system and hold sophisticated fraudsters accountable.”
Guzman Ortiz used the Canadian client’s lists to generate fraudulent checks and deposit them into bank accounts controlled by the sham companies, knowing the victims had made no purchases and had not authorized any debits. The scheme effectively converted fabricated transactions into real withdrawals from victims’ accounts across the country.
Guzman Ortiz pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Criminal Investigations Group, and Special Agent in Charge Vincent R. Zehme of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General Chicago Region joined Reding Quiñones in announcing the plea.
Trial Attorneys Daniel Zytnick and Anna Forgie of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Grosnoff for the Southern District of Florida is handling forfeiture.
Guzman Ortiz is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 5, when a federal district court judge will determine his punishment after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.