Rochester, N.Y. — The owner of a local consulting company is facing a handful of charges for allegedly stealing financial information from his clients to fraudulently apply for dozens of loans.
Prosecutors said Paul Paredes, 52, the owner of J&E Business Consulting LLC in Rochester, was arrested and charged with wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft. Paredes, whose business acts as a broker between smaller retail businesses and credit card processing companies, allegedly took the financial information of his clients and used it to apply for numerous loans with a local financial lending company. It's alleged these victim businesses were either unaware of the loan applications or were tricked by Paredes into thinking they were for a different purpose.
Prosecutors said 42 of these loans were paid out to Paredes' business between May and November of 2022 totaling roughly $2 million. Paredes is accused of using just four percent of these funds for actual business-related expenses, and using the rest of the money for personal expenses including credit cards, travel and vehicles.
If convicted of the charges against him, Paredes faces somewhere between two and 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. He's currently being held in custody pending a detention hearing on Wednesday, Oct. 18, according to prosecutors.