During the frantic early months of COVID, when companies were scrambling for disinfectant, federal prosecutors say one Castle Rock businessman was scrambling for deposits instead. On Thursday, a federal jury in Denver found 51-year-old Rico Tomas Garcia guilty on nine counts of wire fraud and six counts of money laundering in a bulk hand sanitizer scheme that siphoned roughly $2.4 million from businesses. Prosecutors told jurors that promised shipments never arrived and that advance deposits were quietly diverted rather than used to buy product, backed by forged documents, shell companies, and international wire transfers.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado, Garcia operated as Botani Labs LLC and pitched himself between April 2020 and June 2021 as a conduit for millions of bottles of sanitizer for national retailers. Prosecutors say he collected about $2.4 million in advance deposits on those promises. The FBI Denver Field Office later flagged the jury’s verdict on X, underscoring that the case had fully moved from pandemic hustle to federal conviction.
Arbitration and contractual red flags
Records from an IPF Sourcing arbitration show that IPF paid Botani about $2,493,750 to lock in more than a million units of hand sanitizer, only to find that the product never materialized. The arbitration filings describe a familiar pattern that jurors would later hear about in criminal court: missed delivery deadlines, disputed bank records and accusations that Botani and its principal used stalling tactics while money was shifted into other entities instead of into inventory.
Prosecutors trace funds to shell companies and properties
At trial, prosecutors said Garcia did not just miss shipments; he built out shell companies and then used customer deposits to pay personal debts, buy real estate in California, Nevada and Colorado, and push more than $1 million into offshore accounts in the Caribbean. The government argued that bank records and a detailed paper trail flatly contradicted Garcia’s sworn testimony in arbitration, where he had claimed that funds were wired to a Chinese manufacturer.
Court record: search warrants and email evidence
The docket indicates that U.S. District Judge Nina Y. Wang presided over the case and that investigators secured a search warrant for multiple email accounts tied to Botani and related entities. An order denying a defense motion to suppress lays out which accounts were targeted and what could be seized. Those public filings show investigators pulling business records, device and account information and transactional data in an effort to map how the alleged fraud operated and where the money went.
Legal stakes and the bigger picture
Garcia now stands convicted on nine wire fraud counts and six money laundering counts. Wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343 can carry up to 20 years in prison, and up to 30 years when connected to disaster relief efforts, while the monetary transaction statute at 18 U.S.C. § 1957 allows for fines and up to 10 years in prison. The specific sentence will be set by the court after post-trial procedures wrap up. The prosecution is one of many pandemic-era fraud cases that watchdogs and investigators have pointed to as part of a broader wave of Covid-related criminal and civil enforcement.
The case is docketed as No. 1:24-cr-00106-NYW, and the filings and trial record are available through the federal district court system. Local investigative work was handled by the FBI Denver Field Office, and the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the District of Colorado.
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