Feds: Doral man impersonated FBI agents, defrauded elderly
MIAMI - A Doral man has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $123,000 in restitution after pleading guilty late last year to conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
Federal officials say Reinaldo Miralles Gonzalez, 52, was part of a fraud scheme that targeted mostly elderly users of a money transfer service.
"Fraudsters would contact users of the service, identify themselves as FBI agents (using the names of real agents), and scare the users into believing that the FBI had identified them as financial supporters of terrorism," officials said.
"Threatening legal action, and in one case deportation, the fraudsters tricked the victims into mailing blank money orders to addresses associated with Gonzalez. Some victims were repeatedly victimized and forced to take funds from retirement accounts to satisfy the demands."
