“Il Padrino” has been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for fraud with false checks

Miami – Carlos Miguel Rodríguez, aka “Il Padrino”, aged 45, was sentenced to 129 months in prison (more than 10 years) for responsible for a national scheme to cash forged checks and identity theft, and for more than $ 1.8 million to the victims, the prosecutor reported Wednesday.

Miami-based Rodriguez used the proceeds from the fraud to purchase, among other things, a 39-foot Midnight Express speedboat with 400-horsepower triple Mercury engines.

The defendant carried out the fraud plan with the help of two of his sons, Carlos Miguel and Taily, and other people who were also prosecuted and convicted, according to a statement from the Florida South District Attorney’s Office.

To carry out the scam, Rodríguez and his daughter bought names, dates of birth, addresses and social security numbers from bank customers on the “dark web”.

With the stolen information, Rodríguez’s son was able to access the victims’ bank accounts and change the contact information to a phone number that he and his father managed.

They also downloaded checks signed by the account holders to use as fake check templates.

As soon as the forged checks were ready, “Il Padrino” passed them on to other people with the task of finding people who would go to the banks to collect them.

Sometimes Rodríguez did the homework himself and recruited people who lived on the street or in homeless shelters.

The scammers had forged checks cashed at banks in South Florida and in California, Texas and Utah, states they traveled to for that purpose.

The now convicted man deposited the money from the forged checks into various bank accounts to cover up the source of the money.

In January 2020, Rodríguez Sr. guilty of one conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud, one time aggravated identity theft, and one time in possession of a firearm by a convict.

Il Padrino’s son, Carlos Miguel Rodríguez Jr., and Kenny Alfaro were sentenced to 52 months in prison and 46 months in prison respectively on Tuesday.

Each was ordered to return more than $ 1.8 million to the victims.

Months ago, Raúl Alpizar González was sentenced to 52 months in prison and sentenced to pay more than $ 1.8 million.

Taily Rodríguez and Maipu Fonseca were sentenced to 24 months in prison and credit, respectively.