Miami man gets 12 years in prison for Ex-Im Bank fraud

Guillermo A. Sanchez-Badia of Miami was sentenced late last week to 12 years in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud two commercial lenders and the U.S. Export-Import Bank out of more than $11 million.    Guillermo A. Sanchez-Badia of Miami was sentenced by the District Court of the Southern District of Florida late last week to 12 years in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud two commercial lenders and the U.S. Export-Import Bank out of more than $11 million, the Justice Department said.
   The court also sentence Sanchez-Badia to three years of supervised release and ordered him to forfeit $41,924,418 and pay $11,503,068 in restitution, jointly with co-conspirators Isabel C. Sanchez and Gustavo Girol. 
   Sanchez-Badia pleaded guilty on March 21 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, the Justice Department said.
   Sanchez-Badia admitted that from 2007 through 2012, he and his co-conspirators used two companies to create fictitious invoices for sales of merchandise that never occurred. These invoices were sold to two Miami-area commercial lenders in a process called “factoring,” which allowed the conspirators to receive cash for about 90 percent of the value of the merchandise listed on the fake invoices.
   He further admitted that when the Miami lenders refused to extend additional credit, he and his co-conspirators created false invoices and shipping documents to obtain a loan guaranteed by the Ex-Im Bank. 
   “Rather than acquiring, selling and shipping American manufactured goods as required for an EXIM guaranteed loan, Sanchez-Badia and his co-conspirators used the loan proceeds to pay off earlier factored invoices, thereby extending the scheme, and kept the balance of the loan proceeds for themselves,” the Justice Department explained. “The factoring loans and the EXIM-guaranteed loan ultimately defaulted, causing losses of more than $9 million to the lenders and $2 million to the United States.”
   Five other individuals have also been convicted for their roles in the fraud scheme. Sanchez and Giral, both of Miami, are awaiting sentencing and Freddy Moreno-Beltran of Bogota, Colombia, has been charged. Ricardo Beato of Miami and Jorge Amad of Miramar, Fla., were separately charged, pleaded guilty and have been sentenced for their roles in the scheme, the department said.