Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Sept. 10, 2026 — A Puerto Vallarta accountant remains sought under a U.S. reward of up to $2 million announced Aug. 5.
Griselda Margarita Arredondo Pinzón, 36, is charged in Brooklyn federal court with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. She has not been convicted.
The FBI’s active tip page lists Arredondo as a fugitive. Prosecutors allege she managed money from a timeshare fraud network controlled by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG.
We reviewed the reward poster, federal sanctions records and an October 2025 superseding indictment. The records place Arredondo in Puerto Vallarta and describe an alleged role extending beyond routine accounting.
Local effect of the federal action
The case has direct financial implications for Americans living or doing business in Puerto Vallarta.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control says U.S. citizens and permanent residents must comply with its sanctions wherever they live. Transactions involving blocked people or their property are generally prohibited without authorization.
Arredondo has been on the U.S. sanctions list since July 16, 2024. The official designation identifies Puerto Vallarta as her birthplace and location.
The same record links her to Constructora Sandgris, S. de R.L. de C.V. The Puerto Vallarta company was established in March 2019 and registered for nonspecialized wholesale trade, according to OFAC.
The public listing provides no street address for Arredondo or Constructora Sandgris.
A separate company in the same sanctions action was listed at Libramiento Luis Donaldo Colosio 550, Local 8, in the Lázaro Cárdenas neighborhood. That accounting firm was linked to another sanctioned accountant, Emiliano Sánchez Martínez, not Arredondo.
The sanctions block Arredondo’s property and financial interests held in the United States or controlled by U.S. persons. They also require covered institutions to report blocked assets, according to the Treasury Department’s sanctions notice.
How prosecutors say the money moved
The superseding indictment describes Arredondo as an accountant who worked under the direction of her half-brother, Julio César Montero Pinzón.
U.S. authorities identify Montero, also known as “El Tarjetas,” as a senior CJNG member. The State Department is offering up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
According to the indictment, Arredondo worked at a CJNG-controlled central office that supervised call centers managed by other accountants.
The filing uses the term “contadores” for people who allegedly oversaw the receipt, transfer, and laundering of cartel funds. It calls the account holders used to receive money “pagadores,” or paymasters.
Prosecutors allege Arredondo, Montero and others supported the scheme through call centers, stolen lead lists and false identities. The network also used fictitious contracts, websites, email accounts and shell companies, the indictment says.
The alleged payment structure moved money through several stages.
Victims first transferred funds into U.S. bank accounts provided to Arredondo and others, according to the filing. Paymasters then consolidated the money to reduce scrutiny from banks, regulators and law enforcement.
The money was later transferred to Mexican bank accounts identified by Arredondo and other accountants, prosecutors allege.
From January through May 2025, paymasters transferred more than $39,000 in funds the defendants believed came from victims, the indictment says. At least $31,000 moved after the United States designated CJNG as a foreign terrorist organization on Feb. 20, 2025.
Those transactions are examples cited by prosecutors. They do not represent the total amount allegedly processed through the network.
Arredondo is not charged in the indictment’s terrorism-support counts. Those charges name Montero and Carlos Andrés Rivera Varela.
Her two counts concern wire-fraud and money-laundering conspiracies. Each carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years if she is convicted, according to the Justice Department’s case announcement.
The Puerto Vallarta timeshare connection
Prosecutors say the alleged operation targeted Americans who owned timeshares in Mexico.
The first stage began with unsolicited calls from people claiming to represent brokers or buyers. Owners were promised proceeds from a sale or rental but told to pay taxes or transaction fees first.
A second group later approached some victims while posing as lawyers. They offered to recover the original losses in exchange for more advance payments.
Other callers impersonated U.S. or Mexican government officials. They claimed money had been recovered or threatened victims with legal consequences unless they paid another fee.
“Unsolicited calls and emails may seem legitimate, but they’re actually made by cartel-supported criminals,” Treasury official Brian Nelson said when the government sanctioned Arredondo in 2024.
The indictment refers to an unnamed resort company headquartered in Nuevo Nayarit and an unnamed hotel chain with properties in Puerto Vallarta. It also lists locations in Riviera Maya, Acapulco, Puerto Peñasco and Mazatlán.
Federal prosecutors did not identify those businesses in the public filing. We are not naming an operator based on speculation.
A separate February enforcement action targeted Kovay Gardens and 22 linked people and companies in Puerto Vallarta and neighboring Nayarit. That action shows the scale of the broader federal investigation but is separate from the charges against Arredondo.
Federal data place the wider losses from Mexico-based timeshare fraud at about $350 million between 2019 and 2024. Approximately 6,000 U.S. victims reported losses during that period.
Those national totals cover multiple schemes. They should not be interpreted as losses attributed solely to Arredondo or her co-defendants.
The FBI says complaint records and financial tracing identify CJNG as the cartel most involved in reported timeshare fraud. The agency also cautions that independent call centers may operate similar schemes.
Reward and reporting information
The $2 million reward is offered by the State Department. The FBI is collecting information about Arredondo and the two other fugitives charged in the Brooklyn case.
The official reward poster directs tipsters to 1-800-CALL-FBI or the FBI’s online form. Tips may also be sent by WhatsApp to 212-384-1778.
The poster states that tipsters’ identities will remain confidential.
People reporting a timeshare scam should use the FBI’s separate Internet Crime Complaint Center. The agency recommends reporting wire transfers as soon as possible.
“The first 12 hours, in particular, are critical,” FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Paul Roberts said in the agency’s timeshare fraud guidance.
The FBI asks victims to preserve transfer records, bank-account information, business names, phone numbers, and email addresses connected to the fraud.
