Guatemalan man pleads guilty to stealing around $10 million from N.H. company

A Guatemalan man, the subject of a federal investigation since 2014, has pleaded guilty to embezzling about $10 million from a New Hampshire-based investment company, the office of U.S. Attorney for New Hampshire Jane Young announced Tuesday.

Roberto Montano — also known by the aliases of Jorge Roberto Montano Midence, Roberto Pellegrini, and Alberto Yardi — pleaded guilty to wire fraud in federal court in Concord. The 58-year-old had been charged in a criminal complaint in 2015, was indicted in 2021, and arrested in November.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said Montano managed two forestry projects in Guatemala for the New Hampshire-based investment advisor between 2007 and 2014 and began to steal cash from the project in 2009, concealing the theft with altered financial documents. He also mortgaged the project’s properties without authorization and invested the proceeds into failed ventures and stole subsidies paid by the Guatemalan government for teak forestry, according to prosecutors.

“After Montano was alerted to an investigation into the fraud in 2014, he participated in a Skype call with the victim in which he admitted to embezzling funds ‘many years ago,’” Young’s office said in a statement. “He admitted he ‘cooked the books’ and ‘illegally’ mortgaged properties. Montano was in Miami at the time and promised that he would travel to New England. He also said he would not flee and added, ‘If I have to go to prison, I’ll go to prison.’”

According to authorities, Montano fled to Guatemala, where, over Skype, he allegedly admitted to the company he embezzled about $10 million. He was also wanted by Guatemalan authorities, so the U.S. Attorney’s office said he moved to Nicaragua, where he lived for several years under an alias, most recently as a life coach and yoga instructor named “Alberto Yardi.”

The FBI had been searching for Montano since 2014. He was arrested Nov. 1 at Miami International Airport.

“Once he was taken into custody, Montano provided law enforcement a five-page document admitting his guilt,” Young’s office said. “The first two sentences read, ‘I am guilty.  I abused the trust [the victim] placed in me.’”

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, a charge of wire fraud can result in up to 20 years in prison. Montano will return to court for sentencing in May.

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