In El Paso, a federal jury has convicted 50-year-old El Paso attorney Marco Antonio Delgado (aka Marco Delgado Licon) in connection with a multi-million dollar wire fraud and money laundering scheme announced United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr. and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Waldemar Rodriguez.
Yesterday afternoon, jurors found Delgado guilty of three counts of wire fraud, seven counts of money laundering and nine counts of engaging in monetary transactions of criminally derived property. According to court documents and trial testimony, in January 2010, Delgado, as a legal representative of FGG Enterprises, Inc. (FGG) signed a $121 million contract between FGG and the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), a Mexican-state-owned utility company, for the acquisition and installation of power turbines for the Agua Prieta II power plant located in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. Pursuant to the agreement, payments from CFE to FGG were to be deposited into a FGG bank account located in El Paso.
Evidence during trial also revealed that Delgado, for the purpose of personal enrichment and without the consent of the sole owner of FGG, submitted a fraudulent written request to CFE, causing the payments that were supposed to be made to FGG to instead be deposited in an account in the Turks and Caicos Island, where Delgado controlled the funds. As a result, the first two payments from CFE—one on March 8, 2010, in the amount of $20 million and one on July 6, 2010, in the amount of $12 million—were deposited into the bank account in the Turks and Caicos Islands, instead of FGG’s account. Delgado subsequently diverted millions from the account in the Turks and Caicos Islands. He used the monies for, among other things, the purchase of a residence in El Paso and a condominium in Taos, NM.
Delgado faces up 20 years in federal prison for each of the wire fraud and money laundering counts. He faces up to ten years in federal prison on each of the remaining counts. Delgado also faces criminal forfeiture by the Government of proceeds traceable to his illegal scheme, including the defendant’s residence and furnishings in El Paso and condominium in Taos, NM. He has remained in federal custody since his arrest in November 2012. No sentencing date has been scheduled.
This investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Assistant United States Attorneys Debra Kanof, Anna Arreola and Jose Luis Gonzalez are prosecuting this case on behalf of the Government.