Leader Of Miami Crew Pleads Guilty To $4 Million Defrauding Banks

Key Points:

• Esteban Cabrera Da Corte, a leader of a Miami crew, admitted to taking part in a scheme to steal millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.
• Da Corte and his co-conspirators dupe US banks into partially refunding the millions spent on cryptocurrency purchases.
• The Defendants’ operation of this scheme resulted in US banks processing more than $4 million in fraudulent reversals.

The leader of a Miami crew charged by the US Department of Justice with defrauding banks in a 2020 cryptocurrency-related scheme pleaded guilty Wednesday, according to an official notice.

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, announced that Esteban Cabrera Da Corte pled guilty to participating in a scheme to steal millions of dollars in cryptocurrency and trick US banks into refunding the millions used to purchase that cryptocurrency, in part by using stolen personal identifying information from other people.

According to US Attorney Damian Williams:

“Esteban Cabrera Da Corte orchestrated a scheme to steal millions of dollars by buying cryptocurrency using false and stolen identities and then deceiving U.S. banks regarding those transactions.”

From at least in or around 2020 to at least in or around March 2020, Da Corte and his co-conspirators engaged in a scheme to defraud US banks and a leading cryptocurrency exchange platform by purchasing more than $4 million in cryptocurrency and then falsely claiming that the cryptocurrency purchase transactions were unauthorized, tricking the US banks and the exchange into reversing those transactions and redepositing the money into the Defendants’ bank accounts. They then took the funds from the bank accounts.

They opened accounts with the exchange to carry out this scheme, frequently using photos of fake US passports, fake driver’s licenses, and stolen personal identifying information.

The exchange accounts were linked to bank accounts controlled by the defendants. They purchased cryptocurrency with money that had been deposited into the linked bank accounts, frequently through a series of cash deposits made using ATMs.

That cryptocurrency was then quickly transferred to other cryptocurrency wallets controlled by the Defendants and their co-conspirators outside of the exchange.

After the cryptocurrency was transferred, they called US banks and falsely claimed that the cryptocurrency purchases were unauthorized, causing the banks to reverse the transactions.

According to the Justice Department, the scheme resulted in more than $4 million in false reversals at US banks, while a cryptocurrency exchange lost approximately $3.5 million in digital assets.

Cabrera pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a 20-year prison sentence, and agreed to pay $3.6 million in restitution, with an additional $1.2 million forfeiture.

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