Former Clovis resident launders millions while in prison, DOJ says

CLOVIS, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – A former Clovis resident was charged with managing a $10 million nationwide real estate fraud scheme – officials say he did it while serving a sentence for a different multi-million dollar fraud scheme.

According to court documents, 43-year-old Seth Adam Depiano was sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison in 2020 for running a $24 million fraud scheme in the Eastern District of California.

Between 2021 and 2022, the DOJ says he managed a complex real estate fraud scheme utilizing a group of co-conspirators located across the United States by posing as a real estate broker who represented clients who wanted to sell property.

Using the fictitious identities “Marcus Lazaro” and “Steven Baron Sr.,” the DOJ says he communicated with clients through contraband phones, computers and co-conspirators Zahria Barber, 28, of Las Vegas, and Paola Quintero Beltran. The DOJ says these conspirators met with the potential investors to conduct financial transactions and conduct other activities on his behalf.

In total, the DOJ says approximately $10 million was stolen from their victims.

The millions were then laundered through Las Vegas casinos and other businesses using international wire transfers; Depiano also formed shell companies to purchase and hold real estate using victim funds, officials say.

According to the DOJ, Depiano was charged with wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If convicted, he faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison for wire fraud and mail fraud; he faces a mandatory minimum penalty of two years consecutive for aggravated identity theft.

Depiano and his co-conspirators will next appear before a judge on July 16.