Source: Office of United States Attorneys
DENVER – The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announces that Julio Melendez, age 31, was indicted by a federal grand jury on ten counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting; one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud; and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
According to the indictment, between about March 2020 and about November 2020, Melendez created and executed a payroll fraud scheme against the company where he worked as a project manager. Melendez’s employer was a Maryland-based business that specialized in providing maintenance, custodial, janitorial, and construction services to federal government agencies. During 2020, the company held a contract with a federal agency that obliged the company to provide various services for the agency, including janitorial, grounds keeping, snow removal, and maintenance. While working as a project manager, Melendez was responsible for, among other things, supervising approximately 12 employees, managing employees’ timekeeping, ensuring timesheets were accurate, approving timesheets, ensuring that staff completed their tasks, and ensuring that the company had adequate staff on site at the federal agency.
Among other things, Melendez allegedly conspired with fellow employees under his direct supervision to falsify time sheets and ultimately collect wage payments from their own company for hours and days never worked by the employees. The employees then kicked back a portion of their unearned wages to Melendez as part of the fraud scheme. As a result, the victim company paid approximately $82,000 in wages to employees for services never performed on behalf of the government agency.
The investigation is being conducted by the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Tim Neff.
The charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Case Number: 25-cr-00103-RMR