Rothschild brothers facing federal money laundering charges

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Two brothers accused in Marathon County of posing as FedEx employees to steal money are now facing federal charges of money laundering.

A criminal complaint says 27-year-old Mario Amezcua-Cardenas and 20-year-old Moises Amezcua-Cardenas, of Rothschild, contacted employees at businesses in the Stevens Point, Rib Mountain and Wausau areas pretending to work for FedEx.

Prosecutors say they would tell employees they needed to pay cash before they could deliver packages. One employee turned over $243,000 to the brothers, the complaint said.

The indictment a federal grand jury returned Wednesday said the brothers would pose as company attorneys, store managers or upper management from a corporate office to talk employees into giving them the money, the Wausau Daily Herald reported.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the brothers used financial transactions to send the money to other people, including a person in Milwaukee.

If convicted of the federal charges, the brothers face a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

They both have pleaded not guilty to being a party to the crimes of multiple counts of theft in Marathon County. Both brothers are in the Marathon County Jail on $500,000 cash bonds.