Source: Office of United States Attorneys
ST. LOUIS – A man indicted and accused of aiding a scam that cost at least four victims more than $550,000 was arrested Friday in Florida.
Michael P. Garcia, 36, of the Miami area, was indicted on Dec. 18, 2024, in U.S. District Court in St. Louis with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
The conspirators contacted victims and made various false claims to induce victims to hand over cash or valuables, the indictment says. In one instance, the conspirators claimed to be from a victim’s financial institution and told the victim that her accounts had been compromised and were being used for illegal activity and that the victim needed to give them money to stop that illegal activity. Couriers were then sent to pick up valuables from victims of the scam.
Garcia is accused in the indictment of recruiting and paying a courier to pick up $20,000 in cash and gold bars from two victims in Brooklyn, New York on Oct. 30, 2023. The courier picked up another $30,000 in cash two days later, the indictment says. Garcia is also accused of sending that same courier to Summerfield, North Carolina in November of 2023 to pick up gold bars from a victim there. That same month, Garcia sent the courier to pick up about $200,000 in gold bars from a 76-year-old Fenton, Missouri victim who’d already supplied the conspirators with $20,000 in cryptocurrency, the indictment says. The courier has been arrested and charged.
Garcia will be brought to St. Louis to face charges.
Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow is prosecuting the case.