A 71-year-old Irvine, California man has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after admitting he used a years-old business agreement with a New Jersey company to funnel more than $4.6 million out of the firm through fake invoices. Joseph Rodriguez entered his plea before a federal magistrate judge, with sentencing still scheduled for February 23, 2027.
Rodriguez pleaded guilty to wire fraud according to federal officials in Newark, admitting to Count One of an indictment that had charged him with the crime, as reported by NJ.com. The plea stemmed from a scheme Rodriguez ran through a company called Old American Incorporated, which he used as the vehicle for defrauding the New Jersey firm of more than $4.6 million by submitting fake invoices, per the outlet's reporting.
A 2015 Deal Turned Into a Fraud Pipeline
The roots of the case trace back to January 2015, when Old American Incorporated entered into an agreement with the New Jersey firm. That arrangement allowed Old American to sell outstanding invoices to the New Jersey business for immediate cash, in exchange for loans secured by the proceeds from those invoice payments, NJ.com's account states.
Years later, prosecutors say, Rodriguez turned that legitimate financing structure into the mechanism for the fraud. Between February and July 2023, he submitted fake invoices claiming that millions of dollars were owed to Old American, according to court documents and statements made in court cited by the same outlet. Based on those false documents, the New Jersey company sent Rodriguez more than $4.6 million in advance payments.
Penalties and Sentencing Timeline
Rodriguez now faces up to 20 years in prison on the wire-fraud count, which also carries a maximum fine of $250,000, the report notes. He is scheduled to be sentenced on February 23, 2027.
A Justice Department statement identifies Rodriguez as 71 years old at the time of his plea, matching the age cited in the NJ.com report, though an earlier indictment-stage statement from the Department of Justice had listed him as 70. The Department of Justice's plea announcement confirms that Rodriguez pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge José R. Almonte.
Part of a Broader Pattern in Invoice Fraud Cases
Rodriguez's case is one of several recent federal prosecutions involving fake invoices and financing schemes. In California, a Stockton man pleaded guilty earlier this year in a separate case accused of running a multi-state scheme between May 2018 and November 2020 that targeted invoice-factoring companies, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California.
A comparable case out of New York involved a Queens man who pleaded guilty to defrauding his former employer of approximately $4.4 million using more than a dozen fictitious entities and roughly 40 fake invoices, per the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Wire fraud, the charge Rodriguez admitted to, is defined under federal law as the use of interstate wires to carry out a scheme to defraud, as laid out in 18 U.S. Code Section 1343.
