Costa Rican Christian Eduardo Villalobos Hernandez, 35-years-old, was indicted on January 25 by the United States District Court of Florida, on several mail fraud and money laundering charges.

Villalobos is one of 20 people charged with offenses relating to their participation in various fraud schemes involving over $103 million.

The victims of the fraud are mostly elderly US citizens

“The Justice Department and its partners are taking unprecedented, coordinated action to protect elderly Americans from financial threats, both foreign and domestic,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions

“We cannot allow our elderly and vulnerable citizens to continue to be the target of fraud schemes. For that reason, the U.S Attorney’s Office and its law enforcement partners – criminal and civil – have joined forces to combat Florida-based fraud schemes victimizing the elderly in our community and throughout our nation,” stated U.S. Attorney Benjamin G. Greenberg. “We will bring to justice those who target the elderly and defraud them out of their life savings.”

The information released by the Department of Justice of the Southern District of Florida states:

United States v. Christian Villalobos Hernandez, Case No. 18-20052-CR-Martinez

“Christian Eduardo Villalobos Hernandez, 35, of San Jose, Costa Rica, was indicted on January 25, 2018, for conspiracy to commit mail fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, international money laundering and money laundering. According to the Indictment, starting in or around February 2015 through in or around August 2017, several Costa Rican and Venezuelan citizens, including Hernandez, Andres Pacheco Fonseca (“Fonseca”) and other known co-conspirators, devised and implemented a scheme to unlawfully enrich themselves by contacting victims by telephone, letter or fax and falsely informing them that they had won millions of dollars in a lottery or sweepstake.

As alleged, the conspirators persuaded victims through false and fraudulent representations that in order to collect their winnings they had to send by mail and wire transfer large amounts of cash and money orders to addresses in Miami, Costa Rica, and elsewhere, and to have those same funds deposited in corporate and personal bank accounts the conspirators controlled here in the United States. Within days, the victims’ funds were sent by wire transfer from the corporate and personal accounts located in the United States to corporate and personal bank accounts in Costa Rica that were controlled by Hernandez, Fonseca, their co-conspirators, and their family and friends. In total, approximately $9 million was sent by wire transfer from their accounts in the United States to corporate and personal bank accounts they controlled in Costa Rica.”