Local man with Fall River area ties charged with defrauding businesses of $800,000+, assaulting agents

A man arrested nine days after he allegedly eluded arrest by ramming federal law enforcement vehicles, nearly running down an FBI agent and task force officer in the process, was ordered detained in federal custody on charges he allegedly executed a scheme to defraud local businesses, including a number of well-known businesses, of more than $831,000, and that he allegedly assaulted federal law enforcement agents, announced Acting United States Attorney Richard B. Myrus.

It is alleged in court documents that Paul Diogenes, a/k/a Paul Dejullio, 49, of Providence and has previously lived in the area, created a fictitious catering company, listing his alias as president, in order to obtain credit from food distributors to purchase more than $831,769 in product, including hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of lobster, sea bass, shrimp, scallops, filet, rib eye steak, and wild boar.

Diogenes is also alleged to have used stolen identities and banking information from several well-known businesses and restaurants to obtain funds to pay for some of these products. Court documents allege that Diogenes then resold much of the fraudulently obtained food products, in some instances to the same businesses whose banking information he allegedly used to pay food suppliers.

On August 3, 2021, armed with an arrest warrant for Diogenes, FBI agents task force officers, and Rhode Island State Police surveilled Diogenes and followed him as he drove into a parking lot behind an East Providence business. As agents and officers converged to effect his arrest, Diogenes allegedly placed his car in reverse and rammed it into an FBI task force vehicle, with a task force officer and State Police trooper still inside. Diogenes then drove the vehicle forward towards an FBI agent who had to quickly jump out of the way to avoid being hit. Diogenes proceeded to ram his car into a delivery van parked nearby, before driving toward a second FBI vehicle, narrowly missing a Providence Police officer assigned to the task force who had just exited the vehicle moments before. Using a gap he had created by ramming the law enforcement vehicles, Diogenes proceeded to drive off and elude arrest.

Diogenes, who was believed to be carrying more than $100,000, remained a fugitive for nine days, allegedly moving from one hotel to the next using various false names. He was apprehended at a hotel in Middleborough, MA.

Diogenes appeared before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Patricia A. Sullivan on criminal complaints charging him with wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and felony assault of a federal officer.