Mason City man faces life in prison on federal pandemic benefits fraud charges
SIOUX CITY — A Mason City man was convicted by a federal jury on Thursday on charges related to a pandemic benefits fraud conspiracy.
The US Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa’s office says 48-year-old Yovany Ciero, who is formerly of Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela, was convicted of three counts of wire fraud, 23 counts of money laundering, and single counts of engaging in a monetary transaction in property derived from a specified unlawful activity and money laundering conspiracy.
Prosecutors say evidence showed that Ciero is a former sergeant in the Cuban military who illegally crossed the Mexican border nearly 20 years ago. He was working at an Algona meatpacking plant in 2020 when the COVID pandemic started.
Beginning in July 2020, Ciero and over 100 other immigrants from Cuba obtained fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loans on the false pretenses that they were self-employed businesspeople who earned about $100,000 in gross income in 2019 when they actually worked at the meatpacking plant or elsewhere in 2019.
Ciero was one of six so-called bundlers in the scheme, with his role being to recruit individuals, obtain their personal identifying information and then pass it on to others who submitted the fraudulent loan applications to lenders who were participating in the PPP. Over $4 million in fraudulent applications were submitted with the government losing over $2.4 million as a result.
Ciero faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison and over $10 million in fines when he is sentenced at a later date.
