PERU
A Lima, Peru resident who was charged with operating call centers that lied to and threatened Spanish-speaking consumers in the U.S. plead guilty today to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, federal officials said.
Cesar Luis Kou Reyna, 40, pleaded guilty in federal court in Miami, Florida to charges that he controlled call centers in Peru that falsely told Spanish-speaking victims across the U.S. that they owed debts and threatened legal consequences for failure to pay the alleged debts, officials said.
“The threats made by the defendant’s call centers harassed and intimidated Spanish-speaking victims across the United States,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. “As this case and other recent examples show, we will track down those responsible for defrauding and threatening American consumers, no matter where the fraudster resides, what language the fraudster speaks or which population he or she targets.”
Here are the facts according to court documents:
Kou Reyna owned and controlled a corporation, Fonomundo FC, which operated call centers in Peru and payment and fulfillment 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.