Twenty-six-year-old Esteban
Cabrera Da Corte, the leader of a Miami crew, has pleaded guilty to defrauding
US banks and ‘a leading cryptocurrency exchange ‘ of over $4 million through fraudulent reversals. US prosecutors on Wednesday said Da Corte deployed false
and stolen identities to perpetrate the scheme.
According to Damian Williams,
the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Da Corte and his
co-conspirators in around March 2020 opened various accounts with an unnamed
crypto exchange using fake US passports, drivers’ licenses and stolen
personally identity information. These accounts were then linked to bank
accounts operated by Da Corte and his crew.
How the Scheme Was Run: DOJ
Furthermore, the Department of
Justice (DOJ) in the statement explained that Da Corte and his crew bought cryptocurrencies from the
crypto exchange using cash deposited into the bank accounts via Automated
Teller Machines (ATMs). However, this purchase of cryptocurrency was
immediately transferred to other digital asset wallets outside the exchange
and controlled by the crew.
After this process, the
prosecutors alleged that Da Corte and his team started to make phone calls to
their US bank account providers, falsely claiming that the cryptocurrency
transactions were unauthorized. As a result of their claims, the banks reversed the
purchases, prosecutors said.
“The operation of this scheme by
the Defendants resulted in US banks processing more than $4 million in
fraudulent reversals and the Cryptocurrency Exchange losing more than $3.5
million worth of cryptocurrency,” the DOJ added.
