In a high-stakes game of digital deception and bank fraud, two Los Angeles men have copped to conspiracy charges for swindling millions through a check scam using Instagram as their recruiting ground, the U.S. Attorney's Office reports. Carlos Corona, 36, and Jose Luis Edeza Jr., 31, faced the music in federal court, admitting to their roles in a scheme that siphoned at least $2.7 million from unsuspecting financial institutions.
The duo ran their operation from October 2020, when the world was rife with uncertainty amid a global pandemic, to August 2023, they took advantage of people's shaky financial state using social media to lure accomplices into their fraudulent fold, according to details from the plea agreements released by the Department of Justice at justice.gov. Bank account holders were enticed by the allure of easy money, handing over their debit cards and login credentials as Corona and Edeza – along with their band of conspirators – deposited and then quickly drained the stolen funds from these accounts.
Corona and Edeza's tactic was to zero in on accounts with a bit of history behind them, a ploy to sidestep the bank's security measures; once inside, they and their confederates used the acquired personal banking details for depositing checks purloined from the mail, including from U.S. Postal Service collection boxes, said the U.S. Attorney's Office. Many of these checks bore falsified endorsements or were altered to match the names on the compromised accounts.
The snatched loot was swiftly depleted through cash transactions, electronic transfers, and debit card purchases, and if the banks smelled a rat and came knocking, the perpetrators instructed the duped account holders to feign ignorance and claim their accounts were somehow compromised, presenting a ruse of innocence. For their grand elaborate heist that intended to gut banks of a ghastly sum of $5.3 million, Corona and Edeza caused actual losses to their targeted financial institutions of at least $2.7 million.
The plot has now concluded for Corona and Edeza with the United States District Judge John F. Walter setting the stage for a July 8 curtain call when they will face up to 30 years in federal prison for the bank fraud conspiracy alone and an additional two years for aggravated identity theft charges, per information from Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah E. Spielberger and Alexandra Michael. The United States Postal Inspection Service and IRS Criminal Investigation team unraveled this web of deceit with the Los Angeles Police Department pitching in on the case, ensuring justice finds its way through the maze of modern-day financial crimes.
