Retirement accounts for Florida School employees have been released $1 million, the Fed says.

Five Florida residents worked together to steal more than $1 million from employee retirement accounts in the Sunshine State school district, federal prosecutors said.

According to the U.S. Lawyer’s Office for the Northern District of Florida, one of the officials, Ronald Vargas worked for a company that oversees the 401(k) account.

Currently, Vargas and others have all been convicted in connection with theft from 25 retired school employees, the U.S. Lawyers’ Office said in a February 21 news release.

Osteen, 38, pleaded guilty on August 21 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravating identity theft and committing money laundering, prosecutors said.

On February 3, following the six-day trial, the ju judges returned the conviction against Floyd Boschtic and were accused of serving “as a group money launderer,” Lambert Aguber said.

Bostic, 42, of Tallahassee, has been found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Three Wire Scams. It exacerbated identity theft; a conspiracy to commit money laundering. Money laundering for 16 counts. The prosecutor said it operates an unauthorized remittance business.

Prosecutors said Lambert Aguber, 33, of Miramar, has been found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Additionally, prosecutors say Miramar and Pembroke Pines’ Miramar and Sarina Levy, 36, (34), have committed the crime.

Grace Aguebor pleaded guilty on February 6 to aggravating conspiracy to commit wire fraud and identity theft, while Levy pleaded guilty to those same charges on August 8, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Bostic’s federal public defense attorney, Elizabeth Vallejo, declined to McClatchy News’ decline to request for comment on February 24th. The lawyer representing Grace Aguebor also declined to comment.

Attorneys representing Vargas, Lambert Aguebor and Levy did not immediately return requests for comment.

How the fraud scheme worked

Between January and March 2022, prosecutors said Vargas “exploited his position” as a retirement expert stealing from school employees’ 401(k) accounts.

He worked for an unnamed Tallahassee-based company, prosecutors said.

Vargas had access to employee personal information and was “supervised” the processing of requests for withdrawal from retirement accounts, prosecutors wrote in a court application.

He approved all fraudulent withdrawal requests, according to prosecutors.

“After the fraudulent money was deposited in a bank account held by the conspirator, it was withdrawn as almost cash or cash equivalent,” the prosecutor said.

Vargas and others shared the proceeds from the scheme, according to prosecutors.

Some of the money that was not withdrawn as cash was used to purchase individuals, business, luxury costs and property, prosecutors said.

According to court documents, in an interview with law enforcement on February 9, 2023, Grace Aguber revealed that Vargas helped promote theft.

“Grace generally spent the money she received at her personal expense,” the prosecutor wrote.

She flew to a luxury store, including Louis Vuitton, according to court documents.

Vargas received about $80,000 in cash for his role in the scheme, prosecutors said.

He picked up money from Lambert Aguber at two meetings in Orlando, according to court documents.

Ultimately, the five defendants tried to steal more than $1,405,728.79, according to prosecutors.

They managed to steal $1,007,563.07, court documents say.

Vargas, Bostic, Lambert Agubor, Grace Agubor, Grace Agubor and Levi will be declared April 28th in federal court in Tallahassee, according to the U.S. Law Office.

Any suspected financial fraud against individuals over the age of 60 can be reported to the Department of Justice National Elders Fraud Hotline at 1-833-372-8311.

Fraud complaints can also be reported online to the Federal Trade Commission.