Two men from Dallas and Carrolton, Texas, have pleaded guilty to their roles in a massive $2 million mail fraud scheme.
Robert Joseph Marano, 53, of Dallas, and Paul Anthony Dominguez, 32, of Carrollton, were charged in a felony information with a one count of mail fraud scheme in March 2018.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, Dominguez and Marano contacted client contractors with a proposal to collect outstanding unpaid debts of former customers of the contractor client.
The defendants caused at least 200 client contractors to sign an agreement in which the client contractors authorized the defendants to release liens filed by the client contractor in exchange for the payment of unpaid debts by former customers.
Dominguez and Marano also falsely represented to client contractors that they would collect funds from delinquent clients, retain a commission fee, and then send the balance of the collected funds to the contractor client.
However, the defendants later contacted many former customers of the contractor client and fraudulently caused these former customers to send settlement checks to a business controlled by Dominguez and Marano.
The defendants then stole funds from their client contractors when they unlawfully cashed these former customer checks, but failed to pay their contractor clients the total settlement amount owed.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas alleges that Dominguez and Marano defrauded at least 200 client contractors across the United States and received over $2 million dollars in settlement funds from former customers of the client contractors.
The defendants are scheduled to be sentenced on July 25 and August 1, 2018, respectively, and face a maximum statutory penalty of twenty years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
The United States Postal Inspection Service, Fort Worth, Texas, investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jarvis is in charge of the prosecution.
This case is one of many felony indictments of bankruptcy-related crimes prosecuted as part of the Bankruptcy Fraud Initiative, United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Texas.
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Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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