The fraudster’s wife destroyed the phone to protect her husband from investigators, the FBI alleges

The wife of a man accused of being part of a large-scale fraud with real estate investments allegedly destroyed her phone in an attempt to deter a federal investigation, officials said.

Jennifer Iturralde Pina, 43, of Franklin Lakes, was charged with destruction of documents and released Tuesday on $200,000 bond following her appearance in Newark federal court, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey.

Her husband, 43-year-old Franklin Lakes resident Cesar Humberto Pina, also known as “Flipping NJ,” was charged with wire fraud on October 16, 2023 after allegedly using his large social media following to defraud victims out of millions dollars of money. the plan, the office said.

Cesar allegedly raised about $17 million from dozens of investors to renovate and resell four different homes in New Jersey, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey.

After he flipped the homes and sold them for a profit, many investors reported receiving no payment or getting only a small portion of their initial investment, investigators said.

After his release on bail, his wife learned that the government had received evidence from a witness related to Pina’s case, federal prosecutors said. Shortly afterwards, she asked a friend to tell the witness to stop helping the government.

In early March of this year, the government obtained search warrants for two of Jennifer’s phones – which the government believed she used in connection with the real estate fraud and the attempt to discourage the witness from helping the government – and one phone belonging to the boyfriend, the office said.

On March 3, she tried unsuccessfully to hide one of her phones at the friend’s home, officials said.

Two days later, the friend’s relative called to tell Jennifer that police had just seized the friend’s phone, the release said. Shortly afterwards, when police knocked on Iturraldes’ door to execute a warrant to confiscate her phones, they destroyed one of the phones, authorities alleged.

Cesar began accepting investments from the victims in 2017, federal prosecutors said. In the years leading up to the alleged plan, he along with a famous disc jockey and radio personality holding real estate investment seminars across the country.