Juan Carlos Guzmán-Betancourt (born 1976) is a Colombian impostor and conman. Guzmán is believed to have stolen at least $1 million in various countries.[1] He has used at least ten different false identities and has been pursued in Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, Russia, Thailand and Japan.[1]
Guzmán was born in 1976 in Roldanillo, Colombia.[2] On June 4, 1993, he traveled to Miami as a wheel-well stowaway, calling himself Guillermo Rosales.[2] As an unnamed male, "13 years old", he was listed in the FAA report on flights with stowaways.[3]
Betancourt was first arrested in the United Kingdom in 1998 on suspicion of four burglaries at Le Méridien Piccadilly Hotel, and of using a stolen credit card. In the U.S. states of Virginia, New York, and Florida, Guzmán was convicted of larceny and credit card fraud, being deported from the U.S. three times.[1] In 2010 Betancourt was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for entering the United States illegally from Canada. He had in his possession a passport from Spain with his photo and a false name (Jordi Ejarque-Rodriguez) obtained from the Spanish consulate in Abu Dhabi. [4]
Betancourt is portrayed in the third season of the popular British series Con Men Case Files in the fifth episode entitled "The Perfect 5 Star Hotel Con" (2011).[5]