A Redwood City man who tried to pick up blackmail money from his immigrant relatives while dressed in a clown suit has been sentenced to three years in prison for passing himself off as a federal immigration agent.
A federal jury convicted Frank Salvador Solorza, 46, of conspiracy, impersonating an immigration officer and attempted extortion. At a hearing in Oakland on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ordered Solorza to begin serving a three-year sentence in 45 days.
Solorza was arrested in February 2009 after he arrived at a home in San Mateo County on a child's bicycle -- while dressed in a clown suit, a clown glitter wig, a Pirates of the Caribbean hat (complete with dreadlocks) and sunglasses -- and grabbed a briefcase that he believed contained $50,000 he had demanded as the price for not having his relatives deported, authorities said.
Solorza is a cousin of the alleged victims, who emigrated from Mexico. The father of four said three Norteno gang members had put him up to the scam.
The feds didn't buy that.
"Nortenos always dress in their colors; they don't use disguises, let alone engage in crimes wearing clown suits," Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin Barry and Denise Marie Barton wrote in a sentencing memo filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland.
Six members of the family received phone calls and letters purportedly from U.S. immigration officials, accusing them of lying on their applications for permanent U.S. residence, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in San Francisco.
The family members were told that if they paid $50,000, "your papers will be good forever" and they wouldn't be deported, Special Agent Dennis Scheffel of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrote in the affidavit.
On Feb. 2, 2009, family members were visited at their homes by a man who brought a tape recorder and played the same threatening message, Scheffel wrote. It is unclear from the affidavit who the man was.
Over the next week, one family member also received phone calls with instructions on how to hand over the money. Agents who had been tipped off by family members recorded some of the calls, the affidavit said.
His relatives said they believed Solorza was behind the scheme. They said Solorza was "oddly asking them, as recent as two weeks ago, about when their 'green cards' were going to expire," Scheffel wrote.
The family was told in one call that a man in a clown suit and riding a small bicycle would be coming to pick up the money.
Agents discovered that the calls had been made from a cell phone belonging to Solorza's wife. Solorza had the cell phone and a receipt from the House of Humor costume store in Redwood City when he was arrested.
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