Hialeah man, 3 others accused of trying to deposit stolen $27M tax refund check
A Hialeah man and three men from Texas were arrested Tuesday after trying to negotiate the deposit of a stolen $27 million tax refund check, according to a federal criminal complaint.
Agents arrested the men at a Pembroke Pines restaurant around 1 p.m. after they discussed a deal with an undercover agent posing as a banker, the complaint states.
The check was issued to a Richmond, Virginia, company that was not named in the complaint. Federal agents received a tip earlier this month that it was stolen and that a group of men were trying to find a way to deposit it and disburse the funds, agents say.
On Nov. 5, 37-year-old Carlos Manuel Villanueva, from Hialeah, contacted a man he thought was a banker asking for help negotiating the check, meaning to either have it deposited or cashed, according to the complaint. But the man was really an undercover U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration agent.
Villanueva told the agent that the company the check was supposed to go to was closed and would expire by Tuesday, “creating a sense of urgency,” the complaint states. He said he had three other men out of state who would share the money, agents wrote. These men, Villanueva told the agent “have access to other checks of a large amount and can get more,” according to the complaint.
Villanueva’s cut of the check would be $5.6 million, and he asked the agent to create three separate bank accounts to disburse the funds to and discussed methods to “take all the money out” over several months, the complaint states.
The two agreed to meet at the restaurant, which was not named in the complaint, on Tuesday. Villanueva got there first at 11:45 a.m., the complaint states. About an hour later, Jorge Cruz Garcia, 30, from Katy, Texas, arrived. He told the agent that he operates a business that is used to funnel proceeds from stolen U.S. Treasury checks, according to the complaint.
He also said that he wants to transfer as much money as possible through wire transfers to various accounts he created for several businesses, agents stated.
Around 1:20 p.m., John Ryan Boxie, 43, from Houston, Texas, pulled up to the restaurant in a Maserati. Garcia went outside to meet him, and the two walked back into the restaurant along with 44-year-old Eric Renard Bedford, who’s also from Houston, according to the complaint.
Agents say Boxie introduced himself as an accountant “with extensive financial and bank experience, having worked for two separate tax preparation firms in Houston,” agents wrote in the complaint.
He told the undercover agent that he had the $27 million check for almost a year because he could not find anyone who could negotiate it, the complaint states. Boxie told the agent, according to the complaint, that he wanted him to move $300,000 to $400,000 a day to separate accounts.
Bedford then went out to the car to retrieve a white envelope, agents say. When he came back, he handed it to the undercover agent, who opened it and saw the check, the complaint states. That’s when other agents swooped in and arrested all four men.
The men made their first appearance before a judge Wednesday. Details of the hearing were not immediately available.
They each face charges of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and theft of government money or property. Information about their legal representation was not immediately available.
This story was originally published November 12, 2025 at 1:19 PM.
