Two men pleaded guilty to stealing around $2.7 million by targeting the mail of Southern Californians.
Carlos Corona, 36, of Los Angeles, and Jose Luis Edeza Jr., 31, of Sunland, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a scheme involving third-party bank accounts and stolen checks, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
From October 2020 to August 2023, the men and their accomplices stole checks from the U.S. mail stream including from mail collection boxes located outside post offices.
They solicited accomplices to aid their scheme through social media advertisements.
These accomplices would respond to the ads and provide the suspects with personal information including bank account numbers, PIN numbers, debit cards and online banking login information.
The suspects promised the respondents they would receive a cut of any stolen cash that was deposited into their accounts, officials said.
They specifically chose bank accounts that had been open for a certain amount of time so that money could be accessed quickly.
The stolen checks were then deposited into these bank accounts. In many cases, the checks were falsely endorsed in the original payee’s name.
Other times, the checks were washed or altered to make the payee’s name correspond to the bank account into which the checks were being deposited.
Once deposited, the suspects would quickly remove the funds by making cash withdrawals, electronic transfers or debit card purchases, according to court documents.
To hide any suspicion, the suspects told bank account holders to claim their accounts had been compromised or hacked if banking institutions called to ask about the fraudulent deposits.
Using this method, the suspects stole at least $2.7 million, authorities said.
Both men pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 8. Both men will face up to 30 years in prison for the bank fraud conspiracy count and a mandatory two-year prison sentence for the aggravated identity theft count.
The case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service and IRS Criminal Investigation teams. The Los Angeles Police Department assisted in the investigation.