- Salt Lake resident Santiago Garcia Gutierrez was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for wire fraud.
- Garcia defrauded victims of over $3 million, posing as a federal informant.
- He must pay $3.8 million restitution and forfeit $2.8 million to the government.
SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake man was sentenced this month in federal court to nine years in prison for committing more than $3 million in wire fraud, among other charges.
Santiago Garcia Gutierrez, 56, pleaded guilty in December to wire fraud, impersonating a federal officer, aggravated identity theft and making a false statement to law enforcement.
From 2018 to 2020, Garcia defrauded a victim of more than $2.8 million by falsely representing that he was a "confidential informant" with the Department of Homeland Security. He claimed to the victim he could acquire discounted exotic cars, planes and vessels that had been seized by the U.S. government through forfeiture and persuaded the victim to give him money on the belief that he was purchasing luxury assets, court documents state.
Garcia would fabricate circumstances that "injected a sense of urgency" in the victim to manipulate the victim into wiring funds, the indictment states.
"To convince his victim the scheme was legitimate, Garcia contacted the victim on numerous occasions via text message from multiple phone numbers, falsely claiming to be a confidential government informant, federal agent and, at times, Garcia's own attorney," a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Garcia defrauded eight other victims across the country by convincing them to invest money in oil wells that he claimed he had an ownership interest in and pretended to be his own attorney to lend legitimacy to the scheme, the indictment states. Garcia promised the individuals large returns on investment but prosecutors say the victims never received any profits because Garcia diverted the funds for his own benefit.
In total, those eight victims were defrauded of more than $900,000, according to court documents.
Garcia, a lessee of federally owned wells in New Mexico, also failed to pay royalties to the federal government on the sale of oil extracted from the wells, "despite knowing that he had a duty to do so," the Department of Justice said.
"Garcia's fraud knew no depths it wouldn't reach," prosecutors state in a sentencing memorandum. "Each victim's story has tragic elements, but all have one thing in common: Garcia stealing other people's money by perpetrating fraud schemes using stolen identities and lies with no care in the world to the damage caused."
Prosecutors said for more than a decade Garcia has engaged in "a litany of fraudulent schemes" and his greed and corruption "knew no end."
"Instead of contributing to American society, Garcia has conned those with whom he surrounds himself, and essentially has lived a luxurious life off of other people's money that he pilfered through his fraud schemes," the memorandum states.
Garcia was ordered by the court to pay almost $3.8 million in restitution to the victims, plus forfeit another $2.8 million to the government. After his sentencing on July 23, Garcia was placed in custody with the U.S. Marshals Service.
