A federal judge in Little Rock ordered a Florida man Thursday to pay nearly $9 million in restitution to more than 7,000 people in several states who he helped defraud as a leader of an IRS impersonation scam.
U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson also ordered Yosvany Padilla, 27, to serve 135 months -- more than 11 years -- in federal prison, where parole doesn't exist, for his part in a scam that a prosecutor said focuses on vulnerable people, causing substantial financial hardships for many.
"He facilitated everyone else's role in this," Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Bridges said about Padilla, who pleaded guilty Jan. 3 in Wilson's Little Rock courtroom to wire-fraud conspiracy, admitting that between March 2015 and May 2016, he coordinated, produced and distributed false-identification documents to co-conspirators.
People in Arkansas and many other states received, and continue to receive, telephone calls that Bridges said are placed from call centers overseas but claim to be made by U.S. government officials. The callers claim that the recipient of the call owes a tax debt and must pay it by wire transfer within two hours or will be arrested or sued by day's end. The victims are guided to wire-transfer stations, usually in Walmart stores in their area, and are instructed to transfer funds that will be picked up by another "government official" at a Walmart in another state.
"As I've said before," Wilson said during one of three back-to-back sentencings in the case Thursday, "I'm flabbergasted that people continue to be flimflammed by this."
He said one of his goals in sentencing people for committing federal crimes is deterrence, and in Padilla's case especially, "I sincerely hope it will deter others. I wish I had a way of broadcasting that widely."
Federal sentencing guidelines recommended a sentence of 108 months to 135 months, or nine to just over 11 years, for Padilla, based on his past, the amount of money and victims involved, and the fact that the scammers claimed to represent the government. Wilson sentenced Padilla to the maximum, but said he thought about imposing a sentence above the advisory range.
Wilson imposed lesser sentences Thursday for two other people who were indicted in the Eastern District of Arkansas in 2016 and 2017 in connection with the same scam, but who had lesser roles.
One of them was Jeniffer Valerino Nunez, 21, of Miami, who was sentenced to prison for 47 months, or just short of four years, which is at the low end of a 47- to 58-month penalty range recommended by the guidelines. Nunez has already been jailed for over 29 months, however, and will have only about 16 months left to serve.
As the girlfriend of Dennis Delgado Caballero, 40, of Miami, who has been described as the leader of a group of "runners" who collected the money, and who her parents and attorney said led her astray, she was responsible for about $2.2 million in fraud, and was ordered to pay that amount in restitution along with other defendants who are responsible for the same fraudulent collections.
Nunez, who pleaded guilty to wire-fraud conspiracy in July 2017, and both her parents, who flew to Little Rock from Miami to see her for the first time Thursday in over two years, all spoke to Wilson in tears from a courtroom lectern, with Nunez sobbing loudly.
"She was used in all this," her mother told the judge with the aid of an interpreter. "She fell in love and she followed."
Nunez's parents said their daughter "didn't have time to realize the great opportunities this country offers" before she got involved with Caballero, who Wilson sentenced Sept. 26 to six years in prison and ordered to jointly repay more than $2.4 million in restitution.
Defense attorney Sonia Eileen Fonticiella told the judge that Nunez, originally from Havana, came to the United States from Mexico at age 19 when Caballero invited her to have a relationship with him and work for him.
"It is important to note that Mr. Caballero was in his 30s while Ms. Nunez was still a teenager at the time. ... Mr. Caballero was a mastermind in recruiting young and impressionable immigrants to do his bidding," Fonticiella said, asking Wilson to sentence Nunez to time served.
Bridges said that while "it's easy to be sad for her and her family," and while her involvement with Caballero may have played a role, Nunez used 20 aliases to collect more than $1.3 million in wire transfers from 1,053 victims, making "many, many conscious decisions" to participate in the crime.
Wilson rejected the time-served request but sentenced Nunez at the low end of her guideline range, "because I think it was a severe case of being duped by her boyfriend in her tender years."
The other person Wilson sentenced Thursday was Esequiel Bravo Diaz, 24, of Miami, who Bridges acknowledged had a small role compared with many other conspirators, having collected $115,690 from 320 victims in a two- to three-week period. Wilson sentenced Diaz to 47 months, the low end of his guideline range, noting, "he was involved, even if at the outside edge."
Diaz, who pleaded guilty May 3, was represented by attorney Patrick Spivey of Little Rock.
Padilla was represented by Little Rock attorney Leslie Borgononi, who said his client is a permanent United States resident whose family came over from Cuba when he was 10. She argued that "he wasn't at the very top of the hierarchy," to which Bridges responded that may not have led the "global scheme," but he was the intermediary between the conspirators abroad and all the runners, and "is the most culpable" conspirator among the 10 indicted in the Eastern District of Arkansas.
The Arkansas indictment covers transactions within the state as well as in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Oklahoma, Alabama, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Washington and Washington, D.C.
The three sentencings Thursday were the third, fourth and fifth sentencings in the case. Three others have also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing in November and January. One person indicted in Arkansas is scheduled for trial in December, and another remains at large.
Although the main case is headquartered in Arkansas, similar indictments have been handed up by federal grand juries in Minnesota, Mississippi and Texas. Altogether, authorities say, multiple fraudulent wire transfers have been collected in Arkansas and at least 28 other states.
U.S. Attorney Cody Hiland said Thursday that investigators have so far identified 6,282 victims nationwide, for a loss currently calculated at $10,735,762.61.
"Over the last several years, American taxpayers have been subjected to unprecedented attempts to fraudulently obtain money by individuals impersonating Internal Revenue Service employees," Gary Smith, an agent in charge of the Southern Field Division for the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, said in a news release. He warned that "today's significant sentencings should serve notice to those who engage in this type of criminal activity that they will be held accountable."
Metro on 10/26/2018