Just over four years after President Donald Trump released a little -known businesswoman from South Bay from the prison, a San Diego judge on Friday ordered Adriana Isabel Camberos in police custody, sentenced her more than a year behind bars for a new massive fraud program.
The chief judge of the American district Cynthia Basehant declared Camberos, 54, and her brother Andres “Andy” Camberos, 46, who was convicted last year for a plot in which they sold products intended for Mexico in the more lucrative American market, made tens of millions of dollars based on “a series of lies … and) of the plans.
But the judge said that criminal conduct in the new case, which started only a few weeks after Trump had commissioned Adriana’s previous conviction, was less blatant than the program for the first time in prison because this case involved selling a counterfeit drink.
Basechant sentenced Adriana Camberos to one year and one day in the federal prison in the new case, plus two additional months in detention for having violated his supervised release in her previous case. The judge sentenced Andy Camberos to a year of home detention.
“I never thought I would be in a courtroom,” Adriana Camberos told the judge. She said that she had been mortified for her brother and what the case had done to her and her family. Andy Camberos promised to the judge that he would never be accused, much less condemned, of another crime in his life.
Basechant said that it was likely to order the two brothers and sisters to pay more than $ 12 million in restitution and to allow millions of dollars in properties, luxury vehicles and money held in various bank accounts. An audience to determine the exact amounts of restitution and articles to lose has been scheduled for next month.
Friday, Basehant also denied post-conviction requests that the brothers and sisters asked that their jury verdicts be thrown and that they are acquitted or granted a new trial. The lawyers of the brothers and sisters said Friday before the court that they would appeal convictions to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, largely based on the theory that the conduct that the jury noted was in fact a legal commercial practice.
“The 9th circuit will tell us if it was a crime or not,” said John Littrell, one of Andy’s lawyers, to the judge.
A federal jury condemned the brothers and sisters in October of a conspiracy in order to commit fraud by thread and by mail and seven chiefs of fraud by wire. The jury found that the duo used three Otay Mesa companies they owned to illegally buy wholesale grocery products and other household items from manufacturers to a strong reduction on the promise that products would be sold in Mexico, but they have returned rather and sold the products at much higher prices on the more lucrative American market.
The prosecutors said that three companies controlled by the brothers and sisters had achieved more than $ 59 million in profits between 2019 and 2023, almost all of this by fraud. The government allegedly allegedly paid $ 14.4 million to Andy Camberos to companies while her sister has paid $ 12.5 million.
Among the jury’s conclusions, Adriana Camberos committed a fraud by thread only 42 days after Trump granted his mercy on January 20, 2021, the last day of her first mandate at the White House. Known then by her name of wedding by Adriana Shayota, Camberos was at the time halfway through a 26-month federal prison time for her role in a fraud program with her ex-husband and others involving energy drinks of 5 hours.
This diet involved shayotas and other trade partners making counterfeit English labels so that they can resell 350,000 bottles of 5 -hour energy drinks from the Spanish label which have not sold as well as scheduled in Mexico. Once these drinks have been sold, Joseph Shayota and others offered a new scheme to use high quality counterfeit labels by concocting their own drink which they wrapped and sold in 5 hours.
Of the 11 people charged in this plot, all except Shayota and his wife pleaded guilty. The couple judged themselves and lost in 2016. Camberos spent years appealing to their conviction and their conviction before running for prison in 2019.
The brothers and sisters of Camberos previously maintained, during and after the trial that what the prosecutors alleged and the jury deemed fraudulent may have been dishonest, but was in fact a legal and clever commercial practice known as the diversion of products. They argued in the recent judicial files that the diversion of products is common in industry and that the jurors have received “erroneous and … confusing” instructions concerning the legality of this and other commercial practices, and that consequently, they should be granted a new trial or ask the judge an order of acquittal and reject the accusations.
The prosecutors argued that the brothers and sisters were the “brains” of what they knew to be a fraud program that bilked American companies on tens of millions of dollars. At the trial, the prosecutors said that the brothers and sisters “took place at huge durations to hide” their illegal business practices of the manufacturers they have victims. The government allegedly allegedly changed Spanish labels into English, traveled the email addresses and business names, made purchases via a company based in Tijuana to cover their traces and desired products of GPS products so that the manufacturers cannot follow where their products ended.
Basey agreed with the government that the brothers and sisters have turned into unnecessary intermediaries. “It was more than a simple diversion of products … It was an elaborate program,” said the judge. She said that she could not see how Adriana would think that it was appropriate to lie to her business partners and others after her previous conviction.
The prosecutors recommended a six -year sentence for Adriana and a four -year sentence for Andres, but Basechant said that long -term childcare conditions were not necessary to punish the brothers and sisters given the negative media coverage they received, the houses and vehicles they will be ordered to pay and the millions of dollars in return they will be ordered to pay.
“I’m going to take a lot of money,” Basehant told Adriana Camberos on Friday.
The money, the properties and the vehicles that prosecutors are looking for through confiscation include a Ferrari F12 sports car; Three Range Rover SUVs; Several houses and condos worth millions of dollars in El Cajon, Chula Vista, San Diego and Coronado; their commercial property in Otay Mesa; And millions of dollars held in personal and commercial bank accounts, savings accounts, life insurance policies and a cryptocurrency account.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
