MIAMI — A pair of Peruvian brothers are going to spend several years in prison after admitting they shook down immigrants in the United States for more than $1 million by threatening that they would go to jail if they did not pay them for purportedly required English language classes.
Carlos Espinoza Huerta, 40, was sentenced Monday to eight and a half years in prison, while his brother, Josmell Espinoza Huerta, 32, was previously sentenced to seven years after both pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud.
U.S. District Judge Robert Scola imposed the prison terms, holding Carlos Espinoza responsible for $1.3 million in victims’ losses and Josmell Espinoza liable for $700,000.
According to court records, the Espinoza brothers owned several Peruvian call centers that targeted immigrants from Central America, Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries. Over the past decade, the brothers and five others who worked in their call centers posed as lawyers, court officials and federal agents and lied to hundreds of immigrants that they were required to take English-language courses or risk arrest and deportation.
The brothers and their employees even claimed to be representatives of a “minor crimes court,” which does not exist in Florida or the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami.
“The callers falsely threatened victims with court proceedings, negative marks on their credit reports, imprisonment and immigration consequences if they did not immediately pay for” the purported English-language courses, prosecutors said.
The five other defendants extradited from Peru also pleaded guilty and were sentenced to similar prison terms earlier this year, court records show.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch investigated the case.
