Oct. 18 (UPI) — A Peruvian national was sentenced Thursday to more than eight years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $700,000 in restitution to more than 1,100 victims for his role in targeting recent U.S. immigrants in an international fraud ring.
Jose Alejandro Zuniga Cano, 40, was accused of operating a call center in Lima, Peru, that extorted thousands of dollars out of Spanish-speaking U.S. residents by falsely threatening to arrest them, force them into court proceedings or other negative immigration situations.
Zuniga and co-conspirators falsely represented themselves as lawyers, law enforcement officers, and other persons in authority to extort funds from the victims.
The Justice Department said all the claims were false and unsolicited. Zuniga was eventually arrested in Peru and extradited to the United States in March.
“The Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch is dedicated to protecting vulnerable U.S. consumers from fraudsters no matter where those fraudsters resident,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton said in a statement.
“Today’s sentence demonstrates that individuals who defraud our immigrant communities will be held accountable in U.S. courts. We will continue to work with our partners to ensure that individuals who impersonate government and court officials are brought to justice.”
In a related elaborate scam, the call center would tell victims that won free products such as computer tablets and English language courses. Once they accepted, the call center would follow up telling them they were legally obligated to pay something to receive the products and an officer would come and arrest them if they didn’t pay.
“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, including the elderly and recent immigrants,” U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe said in a statement.
“We will not allow transnational criminals to use fear tactics and intimidation to steal money from the public we serve.”