Thread: CA-Some here snagged in fake ID-passport sting

Some here snagged in fake ID-passport sting




UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM

12:11 p.m. September 16, 2008

SAN DIEGO – A handful of San Diego County residents have been arrested in a national sting targeting people who fraudulently obtained U.S. passports by assuming a deceased person's identity, officials announced Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic security said it was the largest investigation of its kind. Dubbed Operation Deathmatch, it was conducted in July and August and netted 112 arrests.


Authorities cross-referenced government death records with Department of State records and identified people suspected of obtaining passports with the identities of deceased Americans.
Charges have been filed in 16 states against most of the suspects, many of whom surrendered to authorities, officials said. Some other suspects have not been apprehended. Federal passport offenses carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

Besides assuming their identity, many of the suspects lived and worked in the same areas the deceased people lived. In some cases, the suspects' neighbors, employers and relatives didn't know their true names, officials said.

They include fugitives, military deserters, delinquent taxpayers, parolees, convicted felons, sex-offenders, habitual drunk drivers and illegal immigrants from 20 countries, officials said. The six people apprehended locally lived in San Diego, El Cajon and Chula Vista.


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metr ... akeid.html

Stolen IDs! and the I-9 hiring of ILLEGAL CRIMINAL ALIENS!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

REQUIRE THE GOVERNMENT TO E -VERIFY ALL I-9S GETTING HIRED BY NC EMPLOYERS VIA THE NC STATE UNEMPLOYMENT OFFICES.

NC STATE UNEMPLOYMENT OFFICES ONLY E-VERIFIES I-9S OF AGRICULTURAL IMMIGRANTS.

Please go and read my information about I-9s at post:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-769349.html#769349

This I fear is just the tip of the iceberg of passport fraud.
It didn't matter what country I was in, I slept with my passport, and carried it with me stuck in undergarments.

Operation Deathmatch

[PDF] Diplomatic SecurityFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
remarkable results from Operation Death Match, in which DS agents. used data mining and information sharing with the Social Security . . .

www.state.gov/documents/organization/86789.pdf - Similar pages

Phony passports obtained using names of dead, feds say
By Mark Gomez and Lisa Fernandez
Staff Writers
Article Last Updated: 09/17/2008 06:16:11 AM PDT


In the largest investigation ever of its kind, federal authorities Tuesday announced the arrests of more than 100 people, including about 30 from the Bay Area, who are suspected of fraudulently applying for and obtaining U.S. passports using birth certificates of dead Americans.

Between July 2005 and August 2008, 112 individuals were charged with federal passport fraud and related offenses around the country, according to the U.S. State Department. The individuals charged include fugitives, military deserters, delinquent taxpayers, parolees, convicted felons, habitual drunken drivers and undocumented workers from more than 20 countries, all of whom wanted passports to hide from law enforcement, according to authorities.

Dubbed "Operation Deathmatch," the investigation was a joint effort by the U.S. Department of Diplomatic Security's San Francisco and Los Angeles field offices and the FBI's Sacramento field office. Senior security service officials from both agencies, who did not want to reveal their names, said investigators analyzed California's death record database, going back to 1940, and its passport requests.

Though this type of "data mining" investigation is ongoing, the officials said, this particular operation was the largest and most successful because computer technology is so much more advanced than it used to be.

The Deathmatch defendants include Chih-Fong Chen of Atherton who, ironically, was an undocumented

Chinese immigrant working in an immigration attorney's office. She stole the birth certificate of a deceased woman, Lorena Lew, while she was working for the Jocelyne J. K. Lew Immigration Law Firm, authorities said. Chen pleaded guilty to a federal passport offense and was sentenced to probation in April 2007.

John White of Mountain View is an another example of someone rounded up for stealing a dead person's identity, authorities said. White also pleaded guilty to a federal passport offense, and was sentenced to probation and community service last year, for taking the name of the late Kenneth Voisinet, federal authorities said. White had a prior conviction for drunken driving and wanted to hide that from his employers, which is why he stole Voisinet's clean history.

And while it's possible for terrorists to steal and use other people's identities, senior diplomatic security officials with the U.S. State Department said there were no defendants charged with terrorism as part of this investigation.

Officials also said that there was no particular reason for announcing the results of Deathmatch on Tuesday, especially since their work is ongoing and began in 2005.

Most of the people charged were arrested or surrendered in federal courts, according to the U.S. State Department. Some remain fugitives. Federal passport offenses carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

Law enforcement officials also seized three firearms, $650,000 in cash, a Mercedes-Benz vehicle and more than 80 of the fraudulently obtained U.S. passports.

Contact Mark Gomez at mgomez@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5869


http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_10481322