Seven Cuban nationals living in south Florida were arrested Tuesday after a grand jury in Little Rock indicted them and three others on charges of running a nationwide scheme to steal $8.8 million from more than 7,000 taxpayers by impersonating IRS agents.
The indictment expands on one handed down last June against two of the defendants, Jeniffer Valerino Nuñez and Dennis Delgado Caballero, both of Miami — who collected fraudulent payments wired to locations all over the country — including 21 transactions in Arkansas. Nuñez and Caballero have been in federal custody since May 2016.
"This fraud scheme has victimized thousands of innocent people all across the country, including a number of citizens here in Arkansas," Patrick C. Harris, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, said in a news release announcing Tuesday's arrests and the new indictments.
"These defendants pretended to be government employees and scared victims with spurious threats of legal action and imprisonment, and in doing so sought to take advantage of the most vulnerable among us," he said. "This indictment reflects our commitment to protecting our citizens from fraud, and holding accountable those who steal from honest citizens."
The defendants are accused of pretending to be IRS employees when they called and threatened victims with legal action or arrest for unpaid taxes. They persuaded the victims to wire money to various locations using MoneyGram, Walmart-2-Walmart or other services.
The 21 Arkansas transaction included in the indictment total about $120,000 and came from victims in a dozen different states.
The seven Florida residents arrested Tuesday were Angel Chapotin Carrillo, 42, Ricardo Fontanella Caballero, 25, and Yosvany Padilla, 26, all of Hialeah; Elio Carballo Cruz, 40, Esequiel Bravo Diaz, 23, and Alfredo Echevarria Rios, 43, all of Miami; and Alejandro Valdes, 25, of West Palm Beach.
The eighth new defendant, Lazaro Hernandez Fleitas, 34, of Orlando, remained at large.