Getty Images
- A Peruvian man has been sentenced to 90 months in prison for setting up fraudulent call centers.
- The call centers targeted Spanish-speaking immigrants and threatened them with deportation, the DoJ said.
- Omar Cuzcano Marroquin and his accomplices defrauded thousands of immigrants between 2011 and 2019, the DoJ added.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
A Peruvian man has been sentenced to 90 months in prison for running fraudulent call centers that targeted Spanish-speaking immigrants in the US, according to Newsweek.
Omar Cuzcano Marroquin, 32, set up call centers in Peru that threatened thousands of immigrants to the US, originally from Central America and Mexico, with arrest, court charges, and deportation if they didn't purchase bogus educational services, Newsweek reported.
Marroquin and his accomplices falsely told victims that they had to pay for English-language courses or they would face serious adverse consequences, according to the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
The centers, which were in operation from April 2011 to July 2019, collected millions of dollars from victims over an 8-year period, the media outlet said.
Phone operators from the fake call centers regularly claimed to be attorneys, court officials, and federal agents, the DoJ said.
Some posed as officials from nonexistent but legitimate-sounding organizations, like "Latinos en Accion" (Latinos in Action), "Camino Al Progreso" (Road to Progress), and "The Neshuer Corporation," Newsweek reported.
Marroquin and four other accomplices were arrested on July 2, 2019, by Peruvian authorities based on a US extradition request, according to the DoJ.
He was extradited to Florida on October 23, 2020, along with two other accomplices and has remained incarcerated since then, the DoJ said.
Marroquin was sentenced to 90 months in prison on Friday.
"Today's sentence demonstrates that defendants who prey upon U.S. consumers from abroad will not do so with impunity," said Brian M. Boynton, the acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Civil Division, in a Friday press release.