Argentina Man Pleads Guilty in Bank Fraud Scheme

Ricardo Jorge Lombardi, age 49, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, entered a guilty plea to charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud AmSouth Bank of approximately $642,363, Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, today announced.

A superseding indictment filed in 2007 charged Horatio Munar and Lombardi with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to launder the proceeds of the bank fraud. Lombardi was arrested in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2007. Following a three-year legal process, he was extradited to the United States in January 2011 to face the charges in the indictment.

Lombardi conspired with others, including Horatio Munar of Argentina, to defraud banks in the United States between 2001 and 2005 by depositing forged and stolen third-party checks into federally insured financial institutions in the United States, which resulted in aggregate losses of over $5.5 million to the banks, according to court documents.

Lombardi’s involvement was limited to approximately $642,000 of the stolen checks, according to court documents.

Lombardi conspired with Munar and others to launder the proceeds of the bank fraud by making wire transfers to banks in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, as well as by using global currency cards to withdraw proceeds through Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in Argentina and Uruguay, according to court documents.

At the five-week trial of co-defendant Horatio Munar, which occurred in 2007 before U.S. District Judge Wells in Cleveland, the government’s evidence established that Munar had told others that his organization controlled the unions at the international airport in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and that baggage handlers specifically targeted inbound third-party payee checks drawn on U.S. banks which were payable to individuals in South America. Munar, who was convicted following the 2007 jury trial, is presently serving a 25-year prison sentence imposed by Judge Wells.

The investigation was conducted jointly by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Postal Inspection Service, with significant assistance from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division. The investigation was able to link the activities of Lombardi, Munar, and others to “operators” and fraudulent bank accounts in Ohio, California, Colorado, Illinois, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.

The case against Ricardo Jorge Lombardi is currently assigned to Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert W. Kern.