PORTLAND: An 86-year-old man accused of assuming his brother’s identification a long time in the past and utilizing it to double dip on social safety advantages has been convicted of a number of expenses, caught by facial recognition expertise that matched the identical face to 2 completely different identities, authorities say.
Napoleon Gonzalez, of Etna, assumed the identification of his brother in 1965, 1 / 4 century after his sibling’s loss of life as an toddler, and used the stolen identification to acquire Social Safety advantages underneath each identities, a number of passports and state identification playing cards, regulation enforcement officers stated.
A US District Courtroom jury in Bangor on Friday convicted him of expenses together with mail fraud, Social Safety fraud, passport fraud and identification theft. He faces as much as 20 years in jail at sentencing, with mail fraud carrying the best potential penalty of all the costs.
His legal professional stated Tuesday that he intends to enchantment and can search to maintain Gonzalez out jail till the first US Circuit Courtroom of Appeals points a ruling.
Gonzalez’s advantages had been beforehand investigated by the Social Safety Administration in 2010 for potential fraud and his advantages had been upheld.
A brand new investigation was launched in 2020 after facial identification software program indicated Gonzalez’s face was on two state identification playing cards.
The facial recognition expertise is utilized by the Maine Bureau of Motor Autos to make sure nobody obtains a number of credentials, or credentials underneath another person’s title, stated Emily Cook dinner, spokesperson for the secretary of state’s workplace.
“When fraud is detected, the fraudulent transactions are investigated and referred for administrative and/or criminal proceedings. That is what happened with this case,” she stated.
When confronted, Gonzalez claimed that he took on his deceased brother’s identification on the route of the Air Drive’s Workplace of Particular Investigations whereas collaborating in an undercover operation within the Sixties, based on courtroom paperwork. He later admitted to faking his loss of life underneath his personal identification and continued together with his brother’s identification, the paperwork indicated.
A sentencing date has not but been set for Gonzalez, who stays free.
His legal professional, Harris Mattson, stated he doesn’t suppose the federal government proved the entire parts of the a number of counts towards his shopper, and he questioned the knowledge of the imposition of a prolonged jail sentence for his shopper at his superior age.
Mattson stated it’s ironic that it could value extra for his shopper to be imprisoned than the price of the twin advantages he’d been receiving.
“At the age of 86, he doesn’t know how much longer he has to live. He could easily be in prison for the rest of his life,” Mattson stated.
