A resident of Lima, Peru, was extradited to the United States and was arraigned Tuesday in a federal court in Miami, where he stands accused of facilitating fraud schemes perpetrated by numerous Peruvian call centres that defrauded victims across the United States, the Justice Department and U.S. Postal Inspection Service announced Tuesday.
David Cornejo Fernandez, 36, will face federal wire fraud, extortion and conspiracy charges. Cornejo was arrested on May 17 by Peruvian authorities pursuant to a U.S. extradition request. He has remained incarcerated since that time.
According to the indictment, the defendant provided Internet-based telephone lines, caller-ID spoofing services, and recording capabilities to fraudulent call centres from November 2012 through June 2019. Cornejo provided his co-conspirators in Peru with the technology to place fraudulent and extortionate calls to vulnerable Spanish-speaking individuals in the United States.
Cornejo’s co-conspirators falsely told victims that they had been selected to receive a prize, such as a tablet containing an English language course. Many victims expressed interest in receiving the prizes. In later calls, victims were told that they were required to make large payments to receive the prizes.
When victims objected, the callers falsely claimed that victims would face severe consequences — including court proceedings, arrest or harm to their immigration status — if they did not pay. The callers impersonated attorneys, court officials, federal agents and police officers to threaten and intimidate victims into making payments.
Cornejo provided his co-conspirators with the software — and, at times, the training — to convincingly impersonate government officials and extort payments from victims. Cornejo provided his co-conspirators with the technology to manipulate the phone numbers on victims’ caller IDs, which enabled them to place threatening calls that appeared to be coming from U.S. federal agencies, court officials or law enforcement agencies.
Cornejo also placed recordings on his co-conspirators’ inbound phone lines that appeared to be recordings from actual U.S. courts, police departments and federal agencies, including the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
These recordings enhanced the apparent legitimacy of the threatening calls and were used to extort payments from vulnerable consumers in the Southern District of Florida and across the United States.
“The long arm of the American justice system has no limits when it comes to reaching fraudsters who prey on our nation’s most vulnerable populations, to include the elderly and recent immigrants,” said U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida.
A six-count federal indictment was filed against the defendant in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in February 2023 and was unsealed upon the defendant’s extradition to the United States. The defendant has been charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, and extortion.
If convicted, Cornejo faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.