United States v. Benjamin Rafael

Case summary

Benjamin Rafael, 31, a former South Florida banker, was sentenced to 42 months in prison for two frauds. One was a scheme to steal over $60 million from investors and producers seeking financing for movies and Broadway shows; the other was concealing his criminal history on applications for COVID-19 relief loans. According to court records, his co-defendants Benjamin McConley and Jason Van Eman held themselves out as film producers and financiers. They promised victims, according to the same records, that McConley would "match" their cash contributions and use the combined funds to secure financing from financial institutions. The indictment alleges they recruited Rafael, then a bank employee, to deceive victims about the security of their funds. Court documents say McConley and Van Eman repeatedly directed Rafael to falsely assure victims that their contributions had been "matched" as promised. According to the indictment, victims sent tens of millions of dollars to accounts the defendants controlled, but the contributions were never matched; the money was moved into the schemers' personal and corporate bank accounts, often within days. Rafael pleaded guilty in that case (No. 19-CR-20447) to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.¹

The second fraud came after that guilty plea. Rafael submitted several PPP and Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications to various banks, and in them concealed that he had pleaded guilty to the wire fraud conspiracy. The applications led to a separate charge of making false statements to a financial institution (Case No. 21-CR-20161).¹

Rafael pleaded guilty to that charge in July 2021. At the same court appearance, he was sentenced for both cases in a consolidated proceeding to a combined 42 months in prison and five years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay restitution to the victims and to forfeit money and real estate traceable to the fraud schemes.¹

FBI Miami and the SBA's Office of Inspector General investigated. At the time of the announcement, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Browne and Elizabeth Young were prosecuting the 2019 case; Assistant U.S. Attorney Lacee Monk prosecuted the 2021 case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marx Calderon handled asset forfeiture in both. At that time, co-defendant Benjamin McConley had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was awaiting sentencing, and co-defendant Jason Van Eman was scheduled for trial on August 30, 2021.¹

Notes

1. U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, "Former Banker Sentenced to Prison for Role in Movie Financing Fraud Scheme, Falsely Applying for COVID-19 Loans" (original), July 15, 2021 (Case Nos. 19-CR-20447 and 21-CR-20161). ↩₁ ↩₂ ↩₃ ↩₄

Summary written from the documents on this page; every sentence is sourced.