San Miguel Financial Fraud Loses Expats Up To A Million Dollars

Yet another sad tale of expats being scammed out of their retirement funds shows the issue is still a problem worldwide.

The expat community in Mexico’s San Miguel retirement hub is seething with fury as the story of how they were scammed by a well-known personal banking representative breaks. Representative Marcela Zavala Taylor, well known and liked in the community, was the local agent for Grupo Financiero Monex Bank in the region, with her clients trusting her with their pension pots and savings due to her promised high interest rates.

In 2015, the local branch of Monex San Miguel closed, but Zavata Taylor reassured all her clients their banking services would continue as before as their cash had been transferred to the bank’s Queretaro branch. Although a few quirks concerning minor anomalies and the delivery of their bank statements occurred, life went on as normal in the popular retirement destination.

Transfers were being activated when necessary without problems, and nothing seemed abnormal until last January, when worrying rumours began to spread about accounts being emptied and the bank itself got involved. The result of the bank’s enquiries set the community in a panic, as millions of US dollars may have been taken and bank statements as well as other documents seem to have been faked. To date, no-one who’s lost money has been able to speak with the bank’s representatives, with victims stating if their claims are not met a legal battle will ensue.

One client who prefers to remain anonymous told the media he’d met up with Zavata Taylor when he moved to the area, investing almost half a million dollars in the bank. He was told his cash was making money as it was invested in Volaris and Walmart. Statements were received on time, and cash was sent on request via a courier service until one request was unfulfilled and the client began to worry, especially when he found $10,000 was missing from the account. Other investors found the same, with one couple losing their life savings and another finding their initial $40,000 deposit with Monex was missing.

At present, significant details about the fraud are being kept quiet in order to protect the ongoing investigation, with the bank issuing compensation cheques to the victims in compliance with Mexico’s tough anti-fraud and finance laws. However, the entire issue demonstrates that, yet again, expatriates moving to an unfamiliar country are at risk of financial fraud which could well lose them their entire pension pot or life savings.