Florida school employees' retirement accounts drained of $1M, feds say [View all]

Five people have been convicted in the 2022 fraud scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida.

Five Florida residents worked together to steal more than a million dollars from the retirement accounts of school district employees in the Sunshine State, federal prosecutors said.

One of the individuals involved, Ronald Vargas, worked for the company that oversaw their 401(k) accounts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida.

Now, Vargas and the others have all been convicted in connection with the theft from 25 retired school employees, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a Feb. 21 news release.

Vargas, 38, of Osteen pleaded guilty on Aug. 21 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering, prosecutors said.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2025/03/01/florida-school-employees-retirement-accounts-drained-1m-feds-say/