Owner of Fund Transfer Firm Accused of Bilking Immigrants

Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, saying he supports a bill that would regulate a booming industry that transmits money and goods to foreign countries, announced charges Friday against the owner of a fund transfer operation that allegedly cheated 100 immigrants out of thousands of dollars.

Reiner and Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) said the proposed legislation is aimed at “fly-by-night” money transmittal operations that prey on Latino and Asian immigrants sending money home to their relatives.

Typically, the businesses promise to transmit cash to Mexico and other countries in Latin America and Asia overnight. Some, however, delay delivery for months or shut down and disappear without delivering the money at all, Reiner said.

“These businesses are taking advantage of people who are very vulnerable and are not familiar with the laws,” Reiner said. “This is a crime that is happening with great frequency but we don’t hear about it.”

Reiner said his office filed an arrest warrant Friday against Maritza Perez, a Downey woman who allegedly defrauded immigrants at a money transmittal business with branches in Silver Lake, Huntington Park, Anaheim and San Francisco.

Perez opened El Espanol Internacional in 1985; the business catered mostly to Cuban immigrants, Reiner said. Among the victims of the alleged fraud was an 80-year-old man who lost more than $4,000 he gave the company to send to relatives in Cuba. About 100 other immigrants were cheated out of amounts ranging from $100 to $700, Reiner said.

Andres Mucino, an investigator for the district attorney’s office said Perez had closed the businesses and fled her home. She was still at large Friday, he said.

The proposed legislation, authored by Polanco, would close “loopholes” in the laws that regulate the businesses. Under existing law, money transmittal businesses must be licensed by the state Banking Department, but the businesses are not required to give refunds to their customers if the money is not delivered promptly. Nor is the there any limit to when they must deliver the money.

The new legislation would eliminate exemptions for businesses that transmit money via telegraph and would require these businesses to deliver within 10 days. Penalties for violating the proposed law would range up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Reiner said most of the money transmittal companies in Southern California are licensed and don’t take advantage of customers. Carlos Mendoza of Fiesta Exchange, one of more than a dozen downtown businesses offering “instant” delivery of cash to Mexico and other parts of Latin America, said he welcomed the proposed legislation.

“Those of us who are licensed are audited regularly,” he said. “Other companies that aren’t licensed can commit abuses and frauds. (The bill) is a good thing.”

Big Source of Income

Economists estimate that money sent by immigrants in the United States to one Central American country alone--El Salvador--total at least $500 million. The remittances are an important source of income for many impoverished families in Asia and Latin America.

Not affected by the legislation proposed by Polanco and Reiner would be express courier companies that send money orders overnight to Latin America. Dozens of the courier businesses operate in Southern California.

A spokesman for Polanco’s office said the bill passed the Assembly Finance and Insurance Committee on May 2 and is pending before the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.