Fake officials, bogus visas: Defendant in sprawling fraud case heads to Miami court

Fake websites promised legal U.S. work visas. Call-center workers allegedly posed as American officials, displayed counterfeit government documents and collected millions of dollars from people across Latin America. On Monday, one of the men accused of helping run the operation is scheduled to make his first appearance in Miami federal court.

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Esteban Robledo-Correa, who prosecutors say once operated from Massachusetts and helped recruit a network of intermediaries to receive victims’ money, is one of six defendants charged in South Florida with participating in an organization that used fake websites, counterfeit government documents and people posing as U.S. officials to sell visas that did not exist.

Robledo-Correa is scheduled for an initial appearance at 2 p.m. before a federal magistrate judge in Miami. Court records show the hearing was previously scheduled and reset. It was not immediately clear from the records reviewed when Robledo-Correa arrived in the United States or whether he was extradited from Colombia.

His appearance marks the latest development in a far-reaching international investigation that led to arrests in the United States, Colombia, Ecuador and El Salvador and exposed what prosecutors describe as an elaborate operation designed to exploit people trying to immigrate legally.

The six South Florida defendants were indicted in October 2025. Robledo-Correa remained at large when the Justice Department announced a coordinated international crackdown on Dec. 3, describing him at the time as a fugitive. He was arrested in Medellín, Colombia, on Dec. 12, according to subsequent court filings.

Prosecutors say the organization operated a dozen or more call centers, mostly in Medellín, that were staffed by workers known as “asesores,” or advisers. Potential victims were drawn in by Facebook pages and other websites offering assistance in obtaining legal U.S. work visas.

What followed, authorities say, was an elaborate imitation of the legitimate U.S. immigration process.

Victims filled out forms, provided personal information and were told about jobs supposedly waiting for them in the United States. During video calls, members of the organization allegedly impersonated U.S. government officials and displayed counterfeit visa approvals and employment authorizations bearing replicas of federal agency seals.

Some calls were conducted from rooms staged to resemble U.S. government offices, complete with American flags and counterfeit seals, according to prosecutors.

Victims were instructed to send money through international wire transfers, supposedly to cover required U.S. government fees. The payments went to intermediaries scattered across the United States, prosecutors say, before being moved through other accounts and ultimately back to the people running the operation in Colombia.

The money typically changed hands at least twice — and often more frequently — before reaching the organization’s leaders, according to the Justice Department.

Robledo-Correa allegedly played a significant role in that financial network.

From approximately July 2022 until July 2024, prosecutors say, he was based in Massachusetts and served as a U.S. “group leader,” recruiting and supervising intermediaries — known within the organization as “proveedores” — who received payments from victims and transferred the money onward.

He also allegedly received and retransmitted victims’ money himself. Prosecutors say that between December 2021 and March 2025, Robledo-Correa sent at least $59,000 from the United States to members of the organization in Colombia in roughly 97 transactions.

After returning to Colombia in 2024, Robledo-Correa allegedly moved into an administrative role, helping other defendants manage the call-center operations in Medellín.

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The scheme could ultimately involve thousands of victims.

When the Justice Department announced the case in December, authorities said investigators had already interviewed approximately 700 victims and had evidence that more than 7,000 additional people had been drawn into the fraud. Victims came from as many as 15 countries, and reported individual losses ranged from $50 to $90,000. Authorities estimated that about $2.5 million had been sent by victims to the United States.

Subsequent court filings put the potential number of people deceived at more than 8,700, with U.S. Embassy personnel in San Salvador having interviewed nearly 900 victims. Because of the unusually large number, a federal judge allowed prosecutors to notify additional potential victims through a Justice Department website rather than attempting to contact each one individually.

For some victims, prosecutors say, the deception ended only when they arrived at an American embassy.

After completing the supposed application process and paying the requested fees, victims were given dates for appointments at U.S. embassies in their home countries. Some traveled considerable distances believing they were about to receive permission to work in the United States.

When they arrived, however, there was no appointment and no record of their purported visa applications.

No legitimate visas or immigration services were ever provided, prosecutors say.

The scope of the evidence collected during the investigation is similarly extensive.

In February, prosecutors persuaded a federal judge to designate the case complex under the federal Speedy Trial Act, citing more than five terabytes of evidence, including cloud-storage records, cellphone data, financial records from several money-transfer companies and approximately 12 hours of Spanish-language post-arrest interviews that were being translated.

Colombian authorities also seized 17 laptops, 68 cellphones and eight computer towers, along with counterfeit seals and fraudulent documents, during searches associated with the arrests in Medellín. Prosecutors have also sought additional evidence from Colombia through a formal mutual legal assistance request.

The international operation extended well beyond the six defendants charged in Miami. The Justice Department said 19 people were arrested across four countries in December as part of investigations involving visa fraud, racketeering, money laundering and related offenses.

Two of Robledo-Correa’s co-defendants who were arrested in the United States have already appeared in federal court in Florida. Julian Giraldo-Ospina, who prosecutors say directed a network of financial intermediaries in the Sacramento area while working with his brother in a Medellín call center, made his initial appearance in Miami in January. Viviana Urrego-Rojas, accused of coordinating intermediaries from Texas, appeared in February.

Three others — Edwin Alberto Correa-David, Danna Pamela Porras-Marin and Andres Giraldo-Ospina — were arrested in Medellín in December. Prosecutors have described Correa-David as overseeing about eight call-center offices, including decisions about which fraudulent websites to use, how much victims should be charged and which U.S. intermediaries would receive their money. Porras-Marin allegedly managed a call center and provided administrative support, while Andres Giraldo-Ospina allegedly created fraudulent websites and helped oversee another group of call centers.

As of a government filing in February, the three remained in Colombia awaiting extradition. Their current status was not immediately clear from the records reviewed.

Robledo-Correa is expected to be advised of the charges and his rights during Monday’s hearing. The court could also address who will represent him and whether he will remain in custody while the case proceeds.

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