A Cuban resident in Hialeah is at the center of a story of redemption that spans from financial crimes to working with one of the most important federal agencies in the United States.
According to a report by Telemundo 51 Miami, the young man traveled a long path that started in illegality and ended in the ranks of the Secret Service.
Michael Pérez began his criminal career selling marijuana at just 16 years old. He then became involved in Medicare fraud and ultimately specialized in credit card cloning, one of the financial crimes most targeted by federal authorities in South Florida, which results in millions of losses each year.
After spending nearly two years in prison for the Medicare scam, he dedicated himself to manufacturing skimmers, illegal electronic devices that are placed over card readers in ATMs or point-of-sale terminals to steal banking information and clone cards. He manufactured and installed them across the country.
He was arrested and sent back to prison. However, his life took a turn thanks to the insight and generosity of an agent who saw in him the potential to leave behind his life as a criminal and work with government agencies, helping to pursue the very crimes he once committed.
After joining the Secret Service, a federal agency that investigates financial fraud, counterfeiting, credit card cloning, and cybercrimes, he gives lectures on how he committed the thefts and assists agents in pursuing this type of fraud.
He even created an application for companies and law enforcement agencies to detect the skimmers.
"I will never feel completely satisfied saying, 'that's it, I've erased what I did,' because that always stays. But at least I feel a bit better and I believe I will help little by little," Michael admitted to Telemundo 51.
The pattern of individuals with criminal records ending up collaborating with federal agencies is not unusual. In financial fraud investigations, the Secret Service, the FBI, and other agencies have turned to informants or collaborators with a criminal history, sometimes as part of cooperation agreements that can lead to reduced charges or, in exceptional cases, a direct link with the agency.
In South Florida, Cubans have been arrested multiple times for credit card-related offenses.
In May, the Orlando Police dismantled an organized fraud ring made up of Cubans, which used cloned food benefit cards to drain the accounts of about 30 victims in the metropolitan area, and this week they arrested three of its members, according to arrest reports.
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