Montero Pinzón and Arredondo Pinzón were accused of conspiracy to commit electronic fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
In addition, Montero Pinzón was accused of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and to provide and try to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Both Montero Pinzón and Arredondo Pinzón are Mexican citizens and are not in custody of the United States.
“This high leader of a foreign terrorist organization allegedly disappointed innocent citizens to feed terrorism against the American people,” said prosecutor Pamela Bondi.
“The CJNG and other cartels are on notice: no scheme, plot or conspiracy will evade the scope of this Department of Justice,” he added.
“As it alleges, Montero Pinzón and Arredondo Pinzón filled the coffers of a dangerous terrorist organization through a sophisticated fraud scheme that victimized thousands of US -time shared time owners,” federal prosecutor Joseph Nocella said for the Eastern District of New York.
“Terrorist cartels such as CJNG finance their activities not only through drug trafficking but also through complex fraud schemes, and this office is committed to aggressively pursuing such crimes,” he added.
“For more than a decade, Julio Montero Pinzón, a senior leader of the CJNG cartel, and Griselda Arredondo Pinzón allegedly defrauded the shared time owners before washing illicit profits to finance his terrorist organization,” said the deputy director Christorpher G. Raia of the FBI field office in New York.
“This alleged scheme was extended throughout the world and exploded thousands of victims, reflecting the evolution of the poster in the development of several mechanisms for criminal financing. Today’s significant interruption emphasizes the determination of the FBI not only to eliminate any monetary source that feeds criminal companies, but also to defend our nation against foreign adversaries,” he added.
According to the accusation, CJNG has been perpetrating a fraud scheme of “early rate” aimed at owners of shared time properties since approximately 2012.
As part of the scheme, the shared time owners, many of whom were residents and citizens of the United States, were fraudulently induced to pay money in advance to sell or rent their shared times under the pretext of rates and taxes, in exchange for false promises to receive money later.
Despite paying rates in advance, the victim’s shared owners did not receive the funds as promised and could not recover their payments of rates in advance.
The fraud scheme had several levels, involving follow -up schemes in which the scammers contacted the shared time owners of the victims and claimed to be lawyers or government officials who could help victims recover their lost funds, provided that they would pay additional rates in advance.
The shared time fraud scheme perpetrated by CJNG was operated from several call centers in Mexico, where scammers contacted and asked the shared time owners.
