In a sprawling international cellphone fraud operation, Ramon Batista, 49, of Florida, pleaded guilty today to orchestrating a high-tech scam that bilked U.S. telecom carriers of more than $794,000. Batista, owner of Arymyx, Inc., admitted to conspiring to commit wire fraud, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft by hijacking American cellphone accounts and routing thousands of unauthorized international calls through reprogrammed devices.
Just hours earlier, Jose Santana, aka Octavio Perez, 53, of West Palm Beach, Florida, was sentenced to 52 months in federal prison after pleading guilty on October 26, 2016, to identical charges. U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley handed down the sentence yesterday, marking the second conviction in the case. Santana admitted to receiving over 1,000 emails containing stolen telecom identifiers—known as “lines”—in an 11-month span, facilitating fraudulent calls to Cuba, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic.
According to court filings, Batista and Santana operated so-called “call sites” across South Florida, where they used compromised account data and specialized hardware to clone cellphones. These reprogrammed devices were used to funnel international calls over the internet, disguising the traffic as legitimate U.S.-based activity. The charges landed on unsuspecting victims’ accounts, many of whom had their personal information stolen or fraudulently obtained by the conspiracy.
Batista admitted to transmitting or receiving 1,132 stolen telecom lines—each representing a hijacked cellphone account. He sold fraudulent telecom services through his company, Arymyx, Inc., and provided co-conspirators with tools and data to reprogram devices. Both defendants acknowledged their personal responsibility for massive financial losses: Batista for $794,000, Santana for $170,000.
This case is part of Operation Toll Free, an FBI-led crackdown on large-scale telecommunications fraud. Batista is the fourth defendant to plead guilty; Edwin Fana was sentenced to 48 months on December 22, 2016, and Farintong Calderon awaits sentencing on February 21, 2017. The investigation exposed a sophisticated, cross-border network that exploited weaknesses in carrier authentication systems.
The prosecution was handled by Senior Counsel Matthew A. Lamberti of the Justice Department’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared M. Strauss of the Southern District of Florida. As telecom fraud grows more brazen, federal authorities warn that operations like this are no longer underground anomalies—they’re organized, profitable, and increasingly hard to stop.
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Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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