A Hialeah man is behind bars, accused of posing as a certified public accountant to defraud victims of tax money for multiple years, according to Miami Police.
Francisco Marrero, 79, is facing multiple charges of organized fraud, first-degree grand theft, practicing accounting without a license, and money laundering. He appeared in front of a judge on Friday morning, who set his bond at $500,000.
According to Miami Police, investigators and the state attorney’s office were working on this case for a year after receiving a few complaints from Marrero’s alleged victims. One of those victims is the restaurant El Toro Loco Churracqueria, which has several locations, but its Little Havana location was listed in the arrest report. It is not known how many others are included in the complaints.
Police also said that Marrero did not make payments to the IRS when he was supposed to, which raised his victims’ alarms. The money police allege he stole was in total over $500,000.
He was arrested at a building at 344 West 65th Street. Police say that Marrero did taxes for multiple firms, managers, and employees.
“One of them got suspicious, hired an accountant to go into it and see what’s going on. He says you’ve been robbed. That’s when they came to the Miami Police Department, and we began our investigation,” said Mike Vefa, city of Miami PIO.
The owner of El Toro Loco issued a statement following Marrero’s arrest that said: “Francisco Marrero, whom I placed all my trust in to handle my business, betrayed me. He presented himself as a professional CPA qualified to work with companies, yet through all these years, the only actions he took were fraudulent.”Â