LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — A federal grand jury has indicted a Mexican national on 20 criminal counts for allegedly using a counterfeit foreign passport to open bank accounts and launder hundreds of thousands of dollars from fraudulent online vehicle sales.
Jose Carlos Dalli Castro, who also operated under numerous aliases including “Julio Castro Lopez,” “Mario Mejia Rojas,” “Alberto Silva Valdez,” “Mike Boris Oganov,” and “Amer Daoud Panou,” allegedly used a counterfeit Spanish passport to open personal checking accounts to facilitate his schemes, according to federal prosecutors.
Authorities said Dalli Castro advertised vehicles for sale online that he did not own or that did not exist. He allegedly established shell corporations and associated bank accounts to give his operation the appearance of legitimacy.
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According to the indictment, victims from California, New York, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Ohio, and Massachusetts wired funds to these shell accounts. Prosecutors said Dalli Castro would quickly drain the accounts and abscond with the cash without delivering the vehicles.
The 20-count indictment charges Dalli Castro with one count of false use of a passport, seven counts of wire fraud, nine counts of money laundering, and three counts of document fraud.
If convicted, Dalli Castro faces a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. His arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 21, 2026, in federal court.
The case was investigated by the Las Vegas Homeland Security Task Force, which includes special agents from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, IRS Criminal Investigation, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Nevada Gaming Commission.
The prosecution is being led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada.
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