Quincy Man Defrauds Charities, Law Firms Of $1M

BOSTON – A Quincy was sentenced in federal court to 31 months in prison after pleading guilty to using counterfeit cashier’s checks to defraud victims, including charities and law firms, of nearly $1 million.

Manuel Ponce Vazquez, 60, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani on Wednesday to 31 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution of over $995,000 after pleading guilty last July to mail fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Vazquez, a Spanish citizen, will face deportations proceedings upon the completion of his sentence.

Investigators say that beginning around August 2013, Vazquez and his co-conspirators defrauded law firms and non-profits, including charities, by sending them fraudulent cashier’s checks and convincing them to wire money to Ponce Vazquez, and others, with the false assurance that the fake checks would cover the expense.

When Vazquez and his co-conspirators targeted charities, they pretended to be donors who accidentally donated more than they intended. For example, Vazquez would mail the charity fraudulent cashier’s checks that purported to be donations.

To pressure the charities to return the excess donation immediately, co-conspirators told the charities, among other things, that the money was needed to fund surgery for a young girl “to better her chances of living” through a “life threatening situation.”

The conspirators asked that the money be sent to associates, including Vazquez. Only after the charities complied did they discover the cashier’s check representing the original “donation” was fraudulent.

When law firms were targeted, the conspirators pretended to be new clients in need of help collecting a debt. Before the firms took any action to collect the supposed debt, they received counterfeit cashier’s checks, ostensibly from the debtors, fully repaying the debt.

At the direction of one of Vazquez’s co-conspirators, the firms forwarded the majority of the checks’ purported value to a bank account that Vazquez controlled, unwittingly paying Vazquez using the firms’ own money.