Merrillville

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Merrillville pair sentenced for extorting $27K from undocumented immigrant

Feb 20, 2015 |

(MERRILLVILLE) Two northwest Indiana residents have been sentenced to prison for an elaborate, year-long extortion scheme in which they preyed on a man living in the United States illegally.

Geovanni Ozuna-Peralta, 25, was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison, while his mother, Vincenta Edith Peralta-Saavedra, 58, was sentenced to 16 months at a hearing in late January, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Both Merrillville residents had pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit extortion, and admitted they took more than $27,000 from the victim, a statement from ICE said.

“This is a very serious crime,” U.S. District Court Judge John J. Tharp said in handing down the sentences. “A crime in which you preyed on someone’s vulnerability … for your own financial gain.”

They came into contact with the 32-year-old victim after the man posted an ad on Craig’s List seeking a romantic relationship with another man, the statement said. The victim was a citizen of El Salvador who did not have legal permission to live in the United States.

Ozuna-Peralta responded, telling the man online that he just wanted to be friends. He later arranged a face-to-face meeting in which he posed as “Kevin Ruiz,” an officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the statement said.

Ozuna-Peralta then posed online as an 18-year-old California man to spark a romantic relationship with the victim, and convinced him to send several hundred dollars so the fictitious boyfriend could move to Chicago, authorities claim.

He later convinced the victim the California man had been arrested on the way to Chicago and needed bail money, authorities said.

Ozuna-Peralta then posed again as Kevin Ruiz, convinced the victim he was wanted in California for trying to lure a minor, and demanded he pay $56,000 in legal fees to a fictitious attorney, authorities said.

The Indiana resident also visited the victim’s apartment armed with a gun and demanded money, authorities said. He later threatened the victim with deportation and threatened to harm his family in El Salvador.

At one point, he enlisted his mother, Peralta-Saavedra, to pose as an immigration judge who threatened to deport the man if he didn’t pay $75,000 — in biweekly installments of $2,000, authorities claim.

The defendants themselves are citizens of Mexico who had been living illegally in the United States, according to ICE. They will undergo deportation proceedings after they complete their prison sentences.

Con man sentenced to 5 years for Craigslist lonely hearts scam

Jan 23, 2015 |

(MERRILLVILLE) A callous con man who had his mom dress up as a federal judge as part of a bizarre “Catfish” scam was sentenced Thursday to five years in federal prison, the Sun-Times is reporting.

Geovani Ozuna, 25, of Merrillville, preyed on a naive, gay illegal immigrant who had posted an online lonely hearts ad on Craigslist, manipulating him in a way that was “disturbing in many ways,” U.S. District Judge John Tharp said.

By posing at different times as a Skokie cop, a corrupt lawyer and a student lover — and roping his mom into play the role of a judge — Ozuna over the course of a year concocted an elaborate story to extort his Salvadoran victim into handing him more than $27,000 in cash.

Testifying through a Spanish-speaking interpreter, the 32-year-old victim on Thursday said he had immigrated to Chicago a decade ago to escape homophobic violence in his homeland. He tearfully explained how he had been left homeless and without money even for food by Ozuna’s scam.

“I had to humiliate myself with many people,” the victim told Tharp, explaining how he’d begged friends and clients at his accounting job to loan him money to pay Ozuna off. “I had to sleep on the floor at my workplace. . . . It was extremely shameful.”

The stranger-than-fiction scheme began when Ozuna responded to his victim’s lonely-hearts ad in 2012, pretending to be a cop. Ozuna then adopted a second phony online identity, this time posing as an 18-year-old college student from California who wanted to be the victim’s lover.

After the victim sent money so that the “student” could travel to Chicago, Ozuna expertly switched back and forth between the two personas in a series of email and telephone conversations, convincing the victim that the “student” had been arrested en route and was in fact underage.

By warning the victim that he faced arrest and deportation for soliciting sex with a minor, and by taking advantage of his ignorance of U.S. law, Ozuna forced the victim to pay “fines” and “legal fees.” He invented another character — a California lawyer — and had his mom pose as a federal judge in a series of threatening phone calls and visits.

Eventually, Ozuna even threatened violence against the victim’s family in El Salvador, bringing a gun to a meeting at which he demanded payment.

“I would like to say sorry to the victim,” Ozuna said during a brief speech to the court Thursday. “I’m a human and I made a mistake.”

But Tharp told him, “You can’t simply wipe it away.”

“Most disturbingly, you recruited your own mother to assist you in a crime of violence,” he said.

The judge — who is due to sentence Ozuna’s mother later this year for her role in the scam — warned Ozuna, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, that he faces likely deportation once he completes his prison term.

He also ordered Ozuna to pay the victim back the $27,000. But the victim said he wasn’t counting on receiving a penny.

He still owes his pals and clients $14,000 they loaned him, he said.

“I’ve lost this money,” he said. “I’m the one who has to pay it back.”

–Sun-Times