Cesar Rafael Coello Dominguez, International Telemarketing Scheme, New York 2025

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Defendant Caught in $12 Million Telemarketing Scheme

Cesar Rafael Coello Dominguez, a 39-year-old Honduran national, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in a massive international telemarketing scheme that scammed over 400 victims out of $12 million.

According to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, Coello Dominguez participated in a years-long scheme that operated call centers in Costa Rica, targeting vulnerable individuals across the U.S. with false promises of sweepstakes prizes.

The scheme, which ran from September 2019 to January 2023, convinced victims to pay taxes and fees to claim their non-existent prizes. Once victims became aware of the scam, the perpetrators would contact them again, this time posing as lawyers or law enforcement officials, in an attempt to trick them into paying even more money.

Coello Dominguez regularly traveled to the U.S. to set up shell bank accounts, which he used to collect millions of dollars in stolen funds and transfer them back to Costa Rica.

In addition to the prison sentence, Coello Dominguez was ordered to forfeit $12 million and make restitution to the victims. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Clayton praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, who assisted in the investigation. The case is being handled by the Office’s General Crimes Unit, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Georgia V. Kostopoulos leading the prosecution.

The sentence serves as a warning to those who engage in such schemes, said Clayton. ‘Cesar Rafael Coello Dominguez helped steal millions from victims across the U.S. Yesterday, he learned that the women and men of our Office are committed to prosecuting those who defraud hard-working Americans.’