A Florida man is expected to be sentenced in June for running a sophisticated nationwide credit union and bank impersonation scheme that stole more than $176,000 from four victims, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in San Diego, Calif.
Albert Guerra, 26, of Miramar, Fla., pleaded guilty to one felony count of bank fraud and one felony count of money laundering in March.
Using multiple commercial rideshare courier service drivers and cell phones, Guerra and his unnamed criminal associates traveled throughout the nation to defraud victims after obtaining their personal and account information. Most of the victims were elderly.
In one case, Guerra flew from Houston to San Diego in the fall of 2025 to carry out his impersonation scheme. In early November, a member of the $203.5 billion, Vienna, Va.-based Navy Federal Credit Union received a call from a person who claimed to be a Navy Federal employee, falsely reported fraud activity on the member's account and said it was not safe to use.
The impersonator convinced the member to make four separate withdrawals totaling $86,300 to keep the funds "safe." The member then delivered the cash to a purported credit union employee who was actually a rideshare service driver.
Guerra typically told rideshare drivers they were picking up documents from his grandmother or grandfather.
By Nov. 12, Guerra had travelled to Las Vegas where he purchased a Tesla Model 3 for $24,000 in cash, prosecutors said.
Using the same con game, Guerra and his coconspirators stole $37,000 from a Bank of America customer and $13,000 from a Wells Fargo customer, according to court documents.
As recently as January, prosecutors said Guerra traveled to Portland, Ore., where he used another person's ID to open a new rideshare account that he used to defraud a fourth victim out of $40,000. Prosecutors did not say whether this victim was a bank customer or credit union member.
Prosecutors indicated in court documents that additional people were victimized by the impersonation scheme.
Peter Strozniak can be reached at peter.strozniak@arc-network.com.
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