Buffalo Man Going to Prison

Rochester, N.Y. - U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that Paul Paredes, 54, of Buffalo, NY, who was convicted of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, was sentenced to serve 87 months in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford. Paredes was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $8,754,446.64 to 57 victims.

Since 2013, Paredes has owned J&E Business Consulting LLC, which provides services to client businesses, including acting as a broker between the credit card processing companies and smaller retail businesses. Small businesses provide J&E with their financial information, such as the owner’s identifying information, including driver’s license, social security number, and email, as well as bank account information.

Between April 2019, and August 2023, Paredes submitted hundreds of fraudulent financing applications to dozens of lenders under the identities of his business customers (victims), for goods and services allegedly provided by Paredes, with the funds payable to bank accounts controlled by Paredes. These financing agreements were prepared in the names if victims, using their personal information, and without their knowledge, consent, or authorization. After a financing agreement was approved, money from the victim lender was deposited into one of numerous bank accounts controlled by Paredes, who used the money he obtained from the scheme to fund his personal expenses, pay salaries and operating expenses, or to make payments to victim lenders to avoid detection of the fraudulent loans. By making those payments to the victim lenders, Paredes was able to continue making similar fraudulent financing agreements with multiple victim lenders without discovery. To further avoid detection, on occasions when victims received communications from victim lenders about the fraudulent financing agreements, Paredes misled them about the purpose of the communications and told them he would handle it.

Paredes used the identity of at least 63 individuals to defraud at least 23 victim lenders, utilizing at least 12 different bank accounts and moving the money he obtained from the scheme throughout different accounts. Paredes submitted false loan applications from Rochester, NY, to the out-of-state lenders located throughout the country, including in New Jersey, Virginia, Illinois, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Washington, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Colorado, and Minnesota. The total loss amount is at least $3,500,000.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katelyn M. Hartford. The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Allen D. Davis, II, the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Harry Chavis, and the New York State Department of Financial Services-Criminal Investigation Bureau, under the direction of Acting Superintendent Kaitlin Asrow.