MIAMI
A grand jury indicted a Lima, Peru resident on fraud and attempted extortion charges for allegedly operating call centers that lied to and threatened Spanish-speaking victims in the U.S., convincing them to pay fraudulent settlements, according to authorities.
Peruvian Cesar Luis Kou Reyna, 40, was charged in a 33-count indictment with conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and attempted extortion, officials said.
Kou Reyna operated call centers that lied and threatened Spanish-speaking victims living in the U.S., convincing them to pay fraudulent settlements, according to authorities.
“The Department of Justice is committed to addressing the noted increase in fraud schemes targeting specific communities of U.S. residents,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Mizer. “As this case and other recent examples show, we will track down those responsible for defrauding American consumers, no matter where the fraudster resides, what language the fraudster uses or which population he or she targets.”
According to allegations in the indictment, this is what happened:
- Kou Reyna owned and controlled a corporation, Fonomundo FC, which operated call centers in Peru and payment and fulfilment operations in Miami.
- Fonomundo FC and its affiliates in South America used Internet-based telephone calling services to place cold calls to Spanish-speaking residents in the United States.
- The callers falsely claimed to be attorneys and sometimes claimed to be government representatives. Callers claimed that victims had failed to pay for or receive a delivery of products, although the victims had not ordered these products.
- Callers claimed that victims would be sued and that the companies would obtain large monetary judgements against them.
- Some victims were also threatened with negative marks on their credit reports, imprisonment or deportation.
- The callers said these threatened consequences could be avoided if the victims immediately paid “settlement fees.”
- Many victims made monetary payments based on these threats.
Kou Reyna was originally charged by criminal complaint and was arrested by U.S. Postal Inspection Service on July 31 in Houston, authorities said.
He has remained incarcerated since his arrest, officials said.
The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated this case, officials said.