Tampa Man Sentenced For Bank Fraud Conspiracy

Tampa, FL – U.S. District Judge Richard A. Lazzara today sentenced Guerryson Torres (50, Tampa) to 33 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit bank fraud.  The court also ordered a money judgment in the amount of $993,828.75, and restitution to the victims totaling $973,486.69.  

Torres pleaded guilty on March 28, 2014. 

According to court documents, from June 2008 to August 2009, Torres conspired with others to defraud GTE Federal Credit Union and Grow Financial Credit Union.  Torres owned and operated a company named Tampa Bay Auto Remarketing (TBAR) that contracted to sell cars and boats that had been repossessed by the credit unions.  Under TBAR’s agreements with the victim credit unions, after selling the vehicles, TBAR was supposed to send the money from the sale of the vehicle, less an agreed-upon fee, to the financial institutions. However, for about 40% of the sales, Torres and his co-conspirators prepared and sent the credit unions false invoices that underreported the sales price of each vehicle, thereby stealing the difference between the underreported sales price and the actual sales price. In addition, with respect 77 of the cars sold for GTE, Torres and TBAR simply pocketed the entire sales amount of the vehicles, and never paid GTE at all. 

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark E. Bini.