A woman prosecutors describe as an organizer of a transnational fraud ring that stole more than $36 million from more than 400 Americans, most of them elderly timeshare owners and earlier fraud victims, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. Juliet Mora, 42, a former Hayward, California, resident who had been living in Nicaragua, entered her plea on Sept. 14 in federal court in Fresno, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant of the Eastern District of California announced. She faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced on Dec. 14.
Fake attorneys promised restitution to timeshare owners
According to court documents summarized by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, the organization operated out of the United States and several countries in Latin America. Its members posed as attorneys and contacted elderly timeshare owners and people who had already lost money to fraud, telling them they were entitled to restitution and other payments.
Believing they were dealing with real lawyers, the victims signed fake representation agreements and bogus non-disclosure agreements. They then paid fees, sending checks and wire transfers to shell companies controlled by co-conspirators inside the United States. The pitch turned a victim’s hope of recovering an old loss into a new one: the promised restitution never arrived, and the fees went to the ring.
Prosecutors said the group depended on a web of U.S.-based members who formed shell companies and opened bank accounts to launder the money. Those members misrepresented the purpose of their businesses and transactions to banks in order to slip past anti-money-laundering controls.
When a “lawyer” wants fees before paying out. Anyone who has wired money to a stranger promising to recover timeshare or scam losses has a short list of calls to make, starting with the bank that sent the funds, and the order of those calls is laid out in the first-hour recovery plan inside The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit.
Mora’s role: shell companies, reopened accounts and fake paralegals
Mora joined the scheme in August 2021, according to the Justice Department. She maintained shell companies and received more than $1,569,826 in victim funds, and investigators traced $2,749,649 in stolen money directly to accounts she controlled. Prosecutors said she lied to banks about the source and nature of the funds, opened and reopened accounts after banks shut them down for suspicious activity, and on several occasions deposited victim money straight into her shell company’s bank account.
After moving to Nicaragua, Mora rose to become an organizer. From there, prosecutors said, she communicated with U.S.-based co-conspirators, directed them to receive and send victim funds, had them open shell companies and had them prepare legal documents used to carry out the fraud. She also used email accounts belonging to fake paralegals to communicate directly with victims, adding another layer of apparent legitimacy to a law practice that did not exist.
Mora was arrested on a second superseding indictment in December 2025, after she arrived at Boston Logan International Airport on a flight from Panama City, Panama.
A multinational pursuit, with three defendants still at large
The case reaches well beyond one defendant. In October 2025, investigators arrested 15 U.S.-based defendants in four states and seized more than $2.1 million in victim funds. Several other defendants fled to Mexico and Central America, and some of them have since been arrested and returned to the United States.
In July 2025, Nicaraguan authorities, working in coordination with the U.S. State Department, arrested Marlon Solis Bonilla, whom prosecutors identified as one of the main subjects of the investigation. FBI agents escorted him from Managua to Houston. In August 2026, Mexican authorities arrested Julian Jauregui, Sergio Jauregui and Eduardo Navarro in Guadalajara in an operation coordinated with the FBI’s legal attaché office in Mexico City, the U.S. Marshals Service and security officials in the state of Jalisco. All three were processed for deportation and removed to the United States. Three defendants remain fugitives.
The FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation and the Bakersfield Police Department conducted the investigation, with help from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Truckee Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cody S. Chapple and Arelis M. Clemente are prosecuting the case, and U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston will impose the sentence. Beyond the prison term, the money-laundering conspiracy count carries a maximum fine of $500,000 or twice the amount laundered, whichever is greater. The actual sentence will depend on the federal Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Why recovery pitches land with older timeshare owners
The ring aimed at a group that is especially exposed: older Americans who own timeshares they may be eager to leave behind, or who have already been cheated once. A call or letter from someone claiming to be an attorney, offering to win back those losses or collect a settlement, can sound like relief rather than risk. Formal paperwork, such as a representation agreement, a confidentiality agreement or an email from a paralegal, only adds to the sense that the offer is real.
The warning signs in the Mora case show up in many so-called recovery scams. Restitution ordered in a real criminal case is collected and paid out through the court system, not by an unfamiliar lawyer who makes contact unprompted and asks for fees up front. A request to send checks or wires to a company whose name does not match the law firm is another red flag, and so is a demand to keep the arrangement secret from family or a bank.
Older adults and the relatives who help them can check whether a lawyer is licensed through the state bar’s online directory, using contact information found independently rather than numbers supplied by the caller. Anyone who has already paid should call the bank or wire service right away to ask about stopping or recalling the transfer, and can report the loss to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. The Justice Department’s Elder Justice Initiative lists further resources for victims and caregivers.
After a fake-restitution call, the paper trail matters
Families who learn that a parent signed a “representation agreement” or wired fees to a stranger usually face a scattered pile of emails, canceled checks and wire receipts, with little sense of which step should come first.
The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit includes the first-hour recovery plan, a fraud evidence and report log and the free credit-freeze steps, so bank calls, police reports and account freezes happen in a sensible order and are written down as they happen.
Begin the recovery sequence with The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit.
This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed against the linked official sources.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
