Submission of False Export Documents Lands Florida Resident in Jail

(Ex-Im Bank) The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) announced today that Miami resident, Mario Francisco Mimbella, was sentenced to six months in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud the Ex-Im Bank of $496,869. The sentencing supports ongoing investigative efforts by the Ex-Im Bank OIG to investigate fraudulent loans and exports to borrowers in South America and elsewhere.

Mimbella, 61, was sentenced by Judge Amy B. Jackson in U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, to an additional 36 months of supervised release and was ordered to pay $496,869 in restitution and $759,547.49 in forfeiture. Mimbella pleaded guilty on July 12, 2011, to a criminal information that charged him with one count of making a false statement in connection with a scheme to defraud Ex-Im Bank.

According to court documents, Mimbella was the owner of Mario's Air, Inc., a Miami-based air cargo provider serving light cargo transportation needs primarily between Miami, Florida, and the Bahamas. Around July 2008, Mario's Air was purported to be an exporter of garbage collection trucks involving $2.3 million worth of loans to Peruvian borrowers from a lending bank in the United States. Ex-Im Bank guaranteed those loans. According to court records, Mimbella submitted false bills of lading and other export records showing that loan proceeds were used to purchase and ship U.S.-manufactured garbage trucks. Instead, in one of the loans, Mimbella wired loan proceeds directly to a Peruvian borrower who used the money to purchase garbage trucks made in Germany rather than in the United States. Subsequently, one of the fraudulent loans defaulted and Ex-Im Bank paid a claim in the amount of $502,169 to the U.S. lending bank in accordance with the terms of the guarantee.