Utah man convicted of impersonating federal officer, scamming Wisconsin families

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (WBAY) – A man from Utah has been sentenced to over a year in prison for wire fraud and impersonating a federal officer.

Juan Carlos Martinez-Napoles, 38, of Utah was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison on Tuesday. He’s also been ordered to pay restitution to his victims and will serve two years of supervised release.

According to court documents, between September 2018 and December 2019, Martinez-Napoles posed as an immigration agent from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and told victims he could assist them in achieving legal status in the U.S. for a fee. He convinced three Wisconsin families to pay him around $45,000, and threatened to have members of one of those families deported if they didn’t pay him.

“Fraudulently posing as a USCIS agent, Mr. Martinez-Napoles took advantage of vulnerable individuals, whom he convinced to pay a total of over $45,000 for his ‘help,’” said U.S. Attorney Haanstad. “In reality, he was simply lying to these individuals to line his own pockets. And when a victim questioned his activities, Mr. Martinez-Napoles even threatened to have the victim’s family deported. I commend the hard work of everyone who helped bring Mr. Martinez-Napoles to justice and commend the victims for their willingness to cooperate with the legitimate federal authorities in this matter.”

“Posing as a government official as Martinez-Napoles did for the purposes of exploiting and victimizing other individuals is intolerable,” said Special Agent in Charge Sean Fitzgerald of HSI Chicago. “HSI will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to hold such offenders accountable for their crimes.”

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