Internet business fraud

[Hot_dog]

Florida


I am a foreigner with a clothing store in Colombia Sth America.

Myself and business partner had dealings with a Colombian clothing supplier we found from an international online wholesale site in July.

We purchased what we thought were Clothing to the value of $USD2,650.
The supplier requested payment via a bank transfer to a company in Miami which is a major car dealership.
We took this to be the parent company of the suppliers employer.

Stupidly we did not check or request personal details from the supplier as we were having so much trouble finding suppliers we were getting desperate with the opening of our store within months.
I contacted the car dealership in August once we realized the supplier was delaying delivery of the clothing week after week.

Turns out this fellow sold our money transfer for a lesser amount to and second party Colombian.
Who then collected car parts from the car dealership to the value of the transfer.

The head of the car dealership accounts dept was helpful and provided me with the personal details he had on the beneficiary of the transfer.

My Spanish speaking partner then contacted the beneficiary by telephone, initially the beneficiary seemed shocked and was helpful and concerned.
He offered to repay us, informing us he would get his money back from the person he purchased the transfer from.

To cut a longer story short... My Colombian partner has been calling the beneficiary several times per week up until now receiving many false promises of repayment and delay tactics.

The beneficiary has the means to repay yet believes there is little we can do to enforce repayment.
I have requested the car dealership to not do further business with the beneficiary until this matter is resolved.
The beneficiary is concerned about his reputation to do future business with the car dealership.

I need to know what procedure if any within Florida we can take to bring charges of fraud or money laundering against this man and does the car dealership have any responsibility here?
Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

[seniorjudge]

Q: I need to know what procedure if any within Florida we can take to bring charges of fraud or money laundering against this man and does the car dealership have any responsibility here?

A: Contact the prosecuting attorney in the county in Florida where this happened and see if they will do anything.

[Hot_dog]

Thank you for the reply