By Greg Barr | Phoenix Business Journal
Jose Teran, a Scottsdale resident, was recently sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for his role in what prosecutors described as one of the largest music-royalty fraud cases on record.
Teran, 38, had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, one count of wire fraud, and one count of transactional money laundering in February of this year, after having been indicted in November 2021. A federal grand jury charged Teran and his co-conspirator, Webster Batista, with 30 felony counts involving conspiracy, wire fraud, transactional money laundering and aggravated identity theft.
Read the full subscription story from the Phoenix Business Journal.
“The wire fraud statutes were created for just this purpose — to give federal prosecutors jurisdictions over fraud committed by interstate or foreign wire transfers. A ‘scheme’ to defraud is the defining concept of the wire fraud statutes. Here, a Scottsdale local devised a classic scheme to commit wire fraud by wiring royalty statements and payments while fraudulently pretending and representing that they were legitimately incurred.” -Sarah Sladick, litigator at Rose Law Group.
