Thirteen foreign nationals from Brazil and Cuba have been charged in an alleged scheme to defraud the United States, federal prosecutors in Orlando announced Monday. The case grew out of a joint Homeland Security Task Force investigation involving multiple federal, state, and local agencies.
Charges Tied to Alleged Fraud Conspiracy
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida, the thirteen defendants were charged for their roles in a conspiracy to defraud the United States. The announcement was shared by USAO Middle Florida
on social media, describing the case as the result of a Homeland Security Task Force investigation that produced federal charges against the thirteen foreign nationals.
The defendants face federal charges related to the alleged conspiracy.
Part of a Broader Pattern in Central Florida
This is not the first time Central Florida has seen federal or local authorities pursue cases alleging fraud against migrant communities. In April, Orange County Sheriff John Mina announced the arrests of four people tied to an alleged immigration-services scheme, as reported by the Orlando Sentinel, which said the operation primarily targeted Portuguese-speaking migrants. The outlet reported that the business at the center of that case, Legacy Imigra, was estimated to have collected around $20 million over three years from migrants seeking asylum or help with their immigration status.
In a separate federal case announced in September 2025, prosecutors indicted 12 people over an alleged international conspiracy involving alien smuggling, asylum fraud, and money laundering, according to WLRN. That station reported the scheme ran from January 2021 through June 2025, allegedly funneling thousands of Cuban migrants into the United States through a business federal prosecutors described as a sham. While unrelated to the newly announced indictment in the Middle District of Florida, these cases point to a recurring type of fraud scheme that federal and local investigators in Florida have continued to pursue against operators accused of exploiting migrants.
