Timothy T. Duax U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa
A former Cuban military sergeant, Yovany Ciero, was sentenced to four years in federal prison on December 3, 2025, for his involvement in a scheme to fraudulently obtain Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ciero, 48, from Mason City, Iowa, and formerly of Cuba, Colombia, and Venezuela, was convicted by a jury in May 2025 on multiple charges including wire fraud and money laundering.
According to evidence presented at trial and sentencing, Ciero entered the United States nearly two decades ago after being denied a visa and crossing the Mexican border. In 2020, while working at an Algona meatpacking plant as the pandemic began, Ciero and more than one hundred other Cuban immigrants secured fraudulent PPP loans by falsely claiming self-employment and reporting approximately $100,000 in gross income for 2019. In reality, they were employed at the meatpacking plant or elsewhere.
Ciero acted as one of six “bundlers” in the scheme. His responsibilities included recruiting individuals into the operation, gathering their personal information for use in fraudulent loan applications, and passing that data to others who would submit the applications to participating lenders. The investigation determined that over $4 million in fraudulent PPP loan applications were filed as part of this conspiracy, resulting in government losses exceeding $2.4 million.
After applicants received their PPP funds—typically $20,000 each—Ciero played a role in laundering the proceeds by collecting fees charged by scheme organizers. He typically collected $3,000 per fraudulent loan.
Additionally, Ciero obtained two PPP loans for himself and his partner. He used most of these funds to purchase a semi-truck and later acquired a Federal Housing Administration loan to buy a home in Mason City. During sentencing proceedings, the court found that Ciero had obstructed justice by providing false testimony at trial.
Ciero is one of several former Iowa meatpacking plant workers sentenced for involvement in this scheme:
- Dinneris Matos Delgado was sentenced to ten months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay $60,744 restitution.
- Ada Irma Rodriguez Fontaine received six months’ imprisonment with $75,417 restitution.
- Yordanis Perez Velazquez was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment with $111,195 restitution.
- Maikel Sanchez Garcia received eleven months’ imprisonment with $138,662 restitution.
United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand imposed Ciero’s sentence of 48 months’ imprisonment along with an order to pay $212,293 in restitution to the Small Business Administration (SBA). Following his release from prison he will serve two years under supervised release; there is no parole available in the federal system. Until his transfer to federal prison facilities is complete he remains in custody of the United States Marshal’s Service.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Timothy L. Vavricek and Daniel A. Chatham. The investigation involved multiple agencies: Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General; Homeland Security Investigations; Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Storm Lake Police Department.
