Jury Finds Castle Rock Man Guilty Of Fraud, Money Laundering Charges For $2.4 Million COVID-Era Hand Sanitizer Scheme
Summary
A press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado dated Thursday, March 12, 2026, announcing that a federal jury convicted Rico Tomas Garcia, 51, of Castle Rock, of nine counts of wire fraud and six counts of money laundering. According to the facts established at trial as the release describes them, from around April 2020 until June 2021 Garcia, doing business as Botani Labs, LLC., claimed he would source millions of bottles of hand sanitizer for large national retailers and received a $2.4 million deposit from victim businesses but procured none. The release states that an FBI investigation found he used shell companies to pay personal debts, buy property and move money into offshore accounts in the Caribbean.
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Press Release Jury Finds Castle Rock Man Guilty Of Fraud, Money Laundering Charges For $2.4 Million COVID-Era Hand Sanitizer Scheme Thursday, March 12, 2026 For Immediate Release U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Colorado USACO.PublicAffairs@usdoj.gov DENVER – The United States Attorney for the District of Colorado announces that a federal jury convicted Rico Tomas Garcia, 51, of Castle Rock, of nine counts of wire fraud and six counts of money laundering for devising a scheme in which he falsely promised to procure bulk quantities of hand sanitizer during the early months of the COVID-19 Pandemic. According to the facts established at trial, beginning around April 2020 and continuing until June 2021, Garcia, doing business as Botani Labs, LLC., claimed he would source millions of bottles hand sanitizer as part of a multi-million-dollar deal to supply the product upstream to large national retailers. After receiving a $2.4 million deposit from victim businesses to finance the product, Garcia instead procured none and falsely claimed under oath in civil arbitration that he had wired the deposit to a Chinese hand sanitizer manufacturer. He provided false documents to support his claim. Investigation by the FBI revealed that Garcia established shell companies to use the $2.4 million deposit to pay off personal debts and buy property in California, Nevada, and Colorado, and also move over a million dollars of the remaining money into offshore accounts in the Caribbean. United States District Judge Nina Y. Wang presided over the trial. The FBI Denver Field Office handled the investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Albert Buchman, Bryan Fields, Laura Hurd, and Aly Mance handled the prosecution. Case Number: 1:24-cr-00106-NYW Contact USACO.PublicAffairs@usdoj.gov Updated March 12, 2026 Component USAO - Colorado Related Content Press Release Former Loveland Police Department Officer Sentenced for Sexually Assaulting a Minor Child DENVER - Today, a federal judge in Denver, Colorado, sentenced Dylan Miller, 30, a former Loveland, Colorado Police Department (LPD) officer, to 17 years in prison for sexually assaulting a... April 13, 2026 Press Release Two Sentenced In Connection With Fraud Ring That Stole Millions In Government Funds, Thousands of Identities DENVER – The United States Attorney for the District of Colorado announces that Ikponmwosa Erhinmwinrose, 39, of Atlanta, Georgia, and Nyerhovwo Presley Agbure, 34, of Atlanta, Georgia, each sentenced in... April 8, 2026 Press Release Colorado Man Sentenced After Pleading Guilty To Terrorist Financing Charge DENVER – The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announces that Humzah Mashkoor, 20, of Westminster, Colorado, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison and a... April 2, 2026
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