RI Man Who Defrauded Top Restaurants of $830,000 in Seafood Sentenced to Federal Prison

RI Man Who Defrauded Top Restaurants of $830,000 in Seafood Sentenced to Federal Prison

A Providence man described in court documents as a career criminal with a “propensity to engage in obstructive and violent behavior toward law enforcement” was sentenced this week to ten years in federal prison for bilking food distributors out of more than $830,000 and for assaulting federal officers, announced United States Attorney Zachary Cunha.

As GoLocal previously reported, Paul Diogenes, a/k/a Paul Dejullio, 50, orchestrated a sophisticated and elaborate scheme in which he used stolen banking information from various businesses and a fictitious catering company to fraudulently obtain $831,572 worth of lobster, sea bass, shrimp, scallops, filet, rib eye steak, and wild boar, most of which he resold to area businesses.

See the restaurants scammed here. 

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In some instances, Diogenes sold the ill-gotten products to the same business whose stolen banking information he used to gain credit from food distributors.

On August 3, 2021, as FBI agents, FBI Task Force officers, and Rhode Island State Police attempted to arrest Diogenes behind an East Providence business, he rammed his car into two FBI task force vehicles, one with a task force officer and State Police trooper still inside; drove his vehicle toward an FBI agent who narrowly avoided serious injury; and rammed his car into a delivery van parked nearby before speeding away. The defendant was located by the U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI nine days later at a Middleborough, MA., hotel. He was in possession of a briefcase containing $116,404 in cash, which is to be forfeited to the government.

Diogenes pled guilty on December 17, 2021, to wire fraud and assault of a federal officer. He was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., to 120 months in federal prison; three years of federal supervised release; and ordered to pay restitution totaling $831,572.

Diogenes, described in court documents as “an unrepentant and compulsive fraudster,” has been, according to court records, convicted in various courts and jurisdictions thirty-four times, including multiple convictions for fraud-related criminal activity and for charges brought as a result of his violent behavior toward law enforcement.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee H. Vilker.

Diogenes’s fraud activity was investigated by the FBI’s Rhode Island Complex Financial Crimes Task Force, with the assistance of Rhode Island State Police and the Providence, Woonsocket, East Providence, Bourne, and Fall River Police Departments.