Dominican National Indicted for Using Stolen Identity to Obtain COVID Relief and SNAP Benefits

BOSTON — A Dominican national unlawfully present in the United States was indicted June 1 in Massachusetts federal court for allegedly stealing an identity to obtain COVID-19 relief payments and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in the District of Massachusetts and announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, names the defendant as a resident of Lowell. Per the Department of Justice release, he faces charges of COVID-relief fraud and federal assistance benefit fraud carried out through the stolen identity.

The scope of the alleged fraud centers on two programs. The SNAP program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides food-purchase assistance to more than 41 million low-income individuals monthly. The COVID-relief funds referenced in the indictment were disbursed under multiple pandemic-era statutes, including the CARES Act and subsequent legislation that together distributed more than $4 trillion in direct payments, expanded unemployment benefits, and business assistance nationwide.

The indictment converts the prior investigative stage into formal criminal proceedings. If convicted, the defendant faces statutory penalties that include full restitution to the agencies defrauded, potential deportation following any prison term, and permanent exclusion from future federal benefit programs. Sentencing would be scheduled after trial or plea in U.S. District Court in Boston.

Downstream, the case requires the U.S. Attorney’s Office to coordinate with the Treasury Department’s COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force and the USDA Office of Inspector General on asset recovery and program-integrity reviews. Federal probation officers must now prepare a presentence investigation report that quantifies exact losses, which in turn sets the restitution amount the court must order.

The indictment also obligates immigration authorities to maintain a detainer if the defendant is taken into federal custody.

This indictment is one of multiple DOJ actions this year targeting individuals accused of using false or stolen identities to access pandemic relief and SNAP. The Department of Justice has pursued similar cases under the same statutes in districts across the country as part of its standing mandate to recover improper pandemic-era disbursements.

Primary sources: U.S. Department of Justice