Press Release
BANK OFFICER PLEADS GUILTY IN MONEY LAUNDERING SCHEME
October 24, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, announced today that a Wachovia Bank assistant vice president, Javier J. Ortiz, 36, of Miami, pled guilty to an Information, 08-20871-CR-JORDAN, charging him with conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with a 2006 Medicare fraud scheme.
From 2002 through September 2008, Wachovia Bank, N.A., employed the defendant initially as a financial specialist and later as an assistant vice president at Wachovia’s West Gables Financial Center, located at 5880 Bird Road, Miami, FL. According to documents filed with the court, Ortiz had a range of responsibilities, including, but not limited to, soliciting new business accounts for Wachovia. Wachovia also entrusted Ortiz with the ability to remove Wachovia computer system “holds” on certain deposits into customers’ accounts and the ability to approve the cashing of checks up to a specified dollar amount.
Around 2005, Ortiz was introduced to Angel Castillo, Jr. Castillo was previously sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Adalberto Jordan to 19 years in prison for his role in orchestrating a $48 million Medicare and money laundering scheme. Ortiz used his position at Wachovia to open new business checking accounts for Castillo’s medical companies. The business checking accounts were opened in the names of Castillo’s straw owners.
Once the medical companies’ accounts were opened, Castillo and his accomplices would submit fraudulent claims to the Medicare program for reimbursement. Medicare would then issue payment checks. When Medicare made payment by way of check, Castillo’s accomplices would deposit the Medicare checks into the respective medical companies’ accounts.
At the behest of Castillo, Ortiz would use his position to remove the computer holds on Medicare checks. Castillo’s accomplices would then be permitted to withdraw the funds by cash withdraws and/or checks. The checks were made payable to a series of Castillo’s accomplices. Ortiz would sometimes authorize these financial transactions while Castillo or his accomplices would wait in the defendant’s office at the West Gables Financial Center. In exchange for removing the holds on Medicare checks and authorizing the financial transactions, Castillo would pay Ortiz lump sums of cash. Ortiz assisted Castillo in laundering more than $400,000 in fraud proceeds.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation thanked Wachovia Bank and its Corporate Fraud Investigative Services for their assistance during this investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney William J. Parente Jr. of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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