Hayden O’Byrne United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida | The Florida Bar
On June 6, Robert Arturo De Los Angeles Mejia, aged 24, appeared in federal court to face charges related to a wire fraud and money laundering scheme based in South Florida. The allegations involve Mejia and his associates defrauding a foreign buyer through a business email compromise (BEC) scheme.
The operation involved intercepting email communications between the foreign buyer and a manufacturer engaged in a business transaction. The fraudulent emails impersonated the manufacturer's legitimate account, misleading the foreign buyer into transferring funds to fraudulent accounts.
Mejia is accused of laundering approximately $200,000 obtained from the BEC scheme. To obscure the origin and ownership of these funds, he allegedly used a shell company and opened corporate bank accounts under its name. He reportedly withdrew large amounts of cash from multiple accounts and branches on the same day to avoid detection and complicate recovery efforts.
The transaction was supported by the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM Bank), which aims to support American jobs by facilitating exports of goods and services from the United States.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida; Inspector General Parisa Salehi of EXIM Bank's Office of Inspector General (OIG) Miami; and José R. Figueroa, acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami.
The investigation was conducted by EXIM Bank-OIG Miami and HSI Miami. Assistant U.S. Attorney Altanese Phenelus is prosecuting the case with Marx Calderon handling asset forfeiture.
It is important to note that an information is merely an accusation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.
For more details on related court documents, visit the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida or access http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under case number 25-cr-20198.
