Florida Man Drains $234,000 From Bank Customers in California and Nevada, Posing As Fraud Investigator: DOJ

A Florida resident has admitted to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from bank customers across the US by pretending to be a fraud investigator.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California says Albert Guerra, who is based in Miramar, Florida, has pleaded guilty to running a nationwide bank fraud scheme together with his associates. Guerra’s scheme involved first obtaining information on a bank customer and then calling them under the pretext of carrying out fraud investigations.

“He convinced victims to withdraw cash and deliver it to purported bank employees—who were just rideshare service drivers that Guerra sent to retrieve cash from victims and to deliver it back to him.”

With many of his victims being elderly, Guerra usually told the rideshare drivers he hired to collect the money that he was sending them to pick up documents from his grandparents, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.

While Guerra is a resident of Florida, the details in his plea agreement indicate he defrauded more than $170,000 from victims on the West Coast. In October of 2025, Guerra defrauded $136,300 from three victims residing in different parts of San Diego, California. Three days after stealing from the trio, Guerra spent $24,000 on a Tesla Model 3 in Las Vegas.

Up north in Oregon, Guerra stole $40,000 from at least one victim.

Guerra, who pleaded guilty to charges of bank fraud and money laundering in late March, is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

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