By Shereen Siewert
A 28-year-old Wausau man will spend 2 1/2 years in federal prison for his role in an international money laundering wire fraud scheme, according to U.S. Dept. of Justice news release.
Mario Amezcua Cardenas was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley. Amezcua Cardenas, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on Feb. 17, also has two open cases in Marathon County Circuit Court.
Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced the sentence in a news release.
In November and December 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, together with local law enforcement, investigated a series of thefts by fraud involving suspects who used false pretenses in persuading employees of businesses to collect and deliver the businesses’ cash-on-hand to money couriers. Police say suspects operating in Mexico called the employees, posing as company attorneys or upper management from a corporate office, and told the employees a false story about why they needed to gather the cash-on-hand and deliver it.
The fraud perpetrators kept employees on the phone so they could not call store management, officials said. At some businesses, fraud perpetrators knew store lingo, the locations of safes, and other employee-specific information, which helped convince the employees the calls were legitimate.
The suspects defrauded businesses throughout Wisconsin, including Merrill, Everest, West Allis, Stevens Point, Wausau, and Rib Mountain, officials said. Businesses large and small were targeted in the scheme and the loss to date is approximately $300,000.
Amezcua Cardenas was one of the suspects who picked up money from employee victims under the false pretenses that he was a legitimate money courier acting on behalf of the victim businesses, O’Shea said. He also conducted and directed others to conduct, wire transactions to redirect fraud proceeds back to perpetrators in Mexico. He and his co-defendant, Moises Amezcua Cardenas, also transported $242,980 in fraud proceeds to another co-defendant, Sinval De Oliveira, in Milwaukee on December 2, 2020.
At Wednesday’s sentencing hearing Judge Conley said he considered the seriousness of the defendant’s criminal conduct together with his lower-level role in the conspiracy, lack of prior criminal history, and drug addiction when determining an appropriate punishment.
Co-defendant Moises Amezcua Cardenas is scheduled for sentencing on May 24, 2022. Co-defendant Sinval De Oliveira is scheduled for sentencing on June 8, 2022. Moises Amezcua Cardenas and Mario Amezcua Cardenas are brothers.
The charges against the defendants were the result of investigations conducted by U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Merrill Police Department, Wausau Police Department, Everest Police Department, West Allis Police Department, Stevens Point Police Department, and Marathon County Sheriff’s Department, with special assistance from the Marathon County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith P. Duchemin prosecuted this case.
