Rosa E. Castrillón-Sánchez, Bank Fraud, Florida 2016

A Puerto Rico resident has been sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for her role in a bank fraud scheme that defrauded individuals and financial institutions on the island.

Rosa E. Castrillón-Sánchez, 45, was sentenced to 159 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $5 million in restitution to victims affected by the scheme.

According to court documents, Castrillón-Sánchez befriended individuals and falsely represented that she was the beneficiary to a Certificate of Deposit (“CD”) or trust for a large amount of money that was frozen at a local bank in Puerto Rico.

Castrillón-Sánchez would request that an individual provide her with a sum of money or take out a personal loan to assist in the releasing of the funds – with full repayment promised as soon as the CD was unfrozen. As part of the scheme, Castrillón-Sánchez and other co-conspirators used false documents and lease agreements to obtain some of the loans and would distribute payments to individuals using Western Union wire transfers and money orders.

From April 2005 to March 2010, Castrillón-Sánchez and her co-conspirators fraudulently induced over 90 individuals to loan the defendant over $5,000,000 in cash, based on false representations and promises that the individuals would be repaid in a short period of time.

Castrillón-Sánchez and her co-conspirators were found to have used proceeds from the scheme to purchase luxury vehicles, including a Toyota Sequoia and a BMW 335i.

Castrillón-Sánchez pled guilty on December 13, 2013 to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349, and one count of aggravated identity theft, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1028(a)(1).

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney H. Ron Davidson and Special Attorneys to the Attorney General Charles R. Walsh and Luke V. Cass.

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