A former senior executive at Summit Aerospace in Miami, Mario Rene De La Torre, and his accomplice, Joe Lewis McHomes, were sentenced to federal prison for orchestrating an elaborate fraud scheme that spanned a decade.
The scheme involved embezzling over $2.1 million from Summit Aerospace, with De La Torre leveraging his position to create fake invoices and channel funds to McHomes, who then shared the proceeds with De La Torre. De La Torre also evaded taxes on these ill-gotten gains by laundering the money and filing false tax returns.
The fraudulent operation involved creating fictitious sales transactions between Summit Aerospace and a Saudi Arabian company, with McHomes posing as a consultant who facilitated these deals. De La Torre and McHomes meticulously structured their financial transactions to avoid detection, using check-cashing stores and splitting payments to stay below reporting thresholds.
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De La Torre used the stolen funds to cover personal expenses, including his family’s credit card bills and his daughter’s education.
Both defendants pleaded guilty to various charges, including conspiracy to commit fraud and tax evasion. De La Torre received a sentence of one year and one day in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, while McHomes was sentenced to five months in a Residential Reentry Center, followed by three years of supervised release, including five months of home detention.
Both were ordered to pay over $2.1 million in restitution.
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The case was investigated and prosecuted by multiple agencies, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, and the IRS Criminal Investigation.
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