Cuban National Pleads Guilty to $800K South Florida Fraud Scheme

Michel Duarte Suarez, a 50-year-old Cuban national living in Panama City, pleaded guilty to orchestrating a multi-state fraud and money laundering scheme that stole over $800,000 from the bank account of an 82-year-old victim in South Florida. Suarez directed the scheme from Panama by mailing fraudulent checks with forged signatures to South Florida, instructing co-conspirators to cash the checks and wire half of the proceeds to his Miami-based company, Online Electronics. He was indicted in September 2023, arrested in Panama in January 2025, and extradited to South Florida to face charges. Suarez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank and mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, facing up to 30 years in prison plus a mandatory two-year consecutive term for identity theft. Sentencing is scheduled for September 29, 2025, before U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams. The case involved collaboration among the U.S. Attorney's Office, FBI, FDIC-OIG, and U.S. Secret Service.