MIAMI – Aurelio Luis Perez, a 55-year-old Miami resident, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for retaliating against a witness in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1513(b)(2), after pleading guilty on March 24.
Perez assaulted a federal cooperating witness at a local club just several days after the victim was identified as a government witness in a federal criminal trial. Specifically, Perez followed the victim into the restroom and assaulted him while yelling, “This is for snitching” in Spanish. As a result of the assault, the witness suffered a cracked front tooth, inflammation, bruising, and lacerations to his lip. The victim did not know Perez. Perez was a close associate of another individual under investigation at the time of the attack. Perez’s associate has been convicted for his role in distributing over $230 million of adulterated HIV medication.
U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida; Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Special Agent in Charge Omar Pérez Aybar of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG); and Special Agent in Charge Kyle A. Myles of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General (FDIC-OIG), Atlanta Region, announced the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola Jr.
HHS-OIG Miami and FDIC-OIG investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Abraham and Trial Attorney Alexander Thor Pogozelski of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under case number 22-cr-20253.
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