JURY SEES MAN'S DIRTY HANDS IN SANITIZER SCAM

A federal jury convicted Rico Tomas Garcia, 51, of Castle Rock, of wire fraud and money laundering for falsely promising delivery of bulk quantities of hand sanitizer during the pandemic, prosectors said Thursday.

"After receiving a $2.4 million deposit from victim businesses to finance the product, Garcia instead procured none and falsely claimed under oath in civil arbitration that he had wired the deposit to a Chinese hand sanitizer manufacturer," prosecutors said.

He also produced false documents.

The FBI determined Garcia used the funds to "pay off personal debts and buy property in California, Nevada, and Colorado, and also move over a million dollars of the remaining money into offshore accounts in the Caribbean," prosecutors said.