A federal judge on Friday sentenced an El Cajon businesswoman to a year in federal prison for masterminding an elaborate fraud scheme that prosecutors said commenced just weeks after President Donald Trump commuted her first term in prison for a different fraud scheme.
U.S. District Court Judge Cynthia A. Bashant sentenced Adriana Camberos to a year and one day in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release plus forfeiture of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains as punishment for perpetrating a multi-million-dollar scheme that involved illegally redirecting goods intended for sale in Mexico to the U.S. market and selling them at a markup.
The judge also sentenced Camberos’ brother, Andres Camberos, to a year of home detention followed by three years’ probation and forfeiture of ill-gotten gains for his part in the scheme.
Both siblings also must pay restitution to companies they defrauded. Judge Bashant estimated victims’ losses at more than $25 million.
Our South County reporter Jim Hinch has been reporting on the siblings’ case because Chula Vista Mayor John McCann helped to free Adriana Camberos from her first prison term by writing a letter to then-President Donald Trump asking for clemency on Camberos’ behalf in 2020.
As Hinch reported last week, both Adriana and Andres Camberos went on to make campaign donations that benefited McCann’s mayoral campaign in 2022, though McCann said he did not solicit the donations or receive any other recompense from either Camberos sibling.
Adriana Camberos also bought a $1.6 million luxury condominium in Coronado shortly after exiting prison that a real estate company owned by McCann had been trying to sell prior to her release. McCann’s company was not involved in Camberos’ purchase of the condominium, according to real estate records.
Adriana Camberos’ lawyers said she would appeal both the verdict in her case and the sentence. A lawyer for Andres Camberos said he was likely to appeal too.
“I never thought I would be in a courtroom again,” Adriana Camberos said in a statement she read at Friday’s hearing. “I’m mortified.”