Thread: Woman accused of selling fake IDs to immigrants

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Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Woman accused of selling fake IDs to immigrants
She and four others are indicted on fraud charges

By Titan Barksdale
JOURNAL REPORTER

A Winston-Salem woman who lived on Indiana Avenue offered a key service to help illegal immigrants, federal investigators say.

According court papers, Laura Bello Castanada's help was only a phone call away. Provided with a passport-size photograph and $250 to $400, she would provide fake IDs.

Bello was one of five defendants indicted by a federal grand jury Monday in Greensboro. The defendants are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States by making and selling counterfeit Social Security cards and resident-alien cards.

Bello's attorney, Nancy Gaines, did not comment about the case.

In addition to Bello, others indicted Monday in U.S. District Court in Greensboro were Jesus Mendoza Lopez, Cristian Luis Madrid-Paz, Luis Antonio Lopez-Vidal and Gerardo Galan Gaytan.

Bello, who was deported in 2000, relied on simple methods and a few people to distribute the fake IDs, court papers show.

In August, a confidential informant called Bello to request the cards. A special agent then wired money to her, and she mailed the fake cards to him in Brownsville, Texas. Bello also delivered fake IDs to the confidential informant in a Wal-Mart parking lot on Hanes Mill Road in Winston-Salem on Nov. 8.

Lopez and Galan told authorities that they picked up photographs from Bello and returned the finished cards to her. Both named Mendoza, who was deported in 2005, as the person who sent them to pick up the photographs from Bello that would be used for the fake IDs.

Bello was arrested Nov. 8 after the transaction in the Wal-Mart parking lot, court documents show. She told federal agents that Mendoza, who was arrested in a Greensboro apartment, produced the cards.

The investigation of Bello led special agents to the Greensboro apartment, where Mendoza and Madrid were found inside. The apartment contained alien-receipt cards, several Social Security cards in various names and a computer, according to the indictment.

"At this point, my client maintains his innocence, but the evidence against him says otherwise," said Chris Beechler, Mendoza's attorney. "He may have been accused because he was associating with folks who were also accused."

• Titan Barksdale can be reached at 727-7369 or at tbarksdale@wsjournal.com.

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Sunday, December 3, 2006
Local fake-ID ring led to indictments of five
Government, businesses work together to fight fraud

By Titan Barksdale
JOURNAL REPORTER

Federal authorities say that the recent indictment of a woman who helped run a fake-ID ring in Winston-Salem represents part of a nationwide problem: the misuse of Social Security numbers.

Many of the people who misuse the identification numbers are illegal immigrants looking for work, said Jonathan Lasher, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration's inspector general's office.

There have been about 10,000 allegations of misuse of Social Security numbers this year, Lasher said. That number includes reports of fake Social Security cards and reports of stolen Social Security numbers.

Locally, Laura Bello Castanada is accused of taking telephone orders from illegal immigrants for fake IDs and offered delivery service to customers, court documents show.

She and four others were indicted Monday on several counts of ID fraud in U.S. District Court in Greensboro.

The price of the fake documents ranged from $250 to $400, but they can be more expensive.

"We have made undercover purchases of cards ranging from $500 to $2,000," Lasher said. "(The cost) varies widely, depending on where in the chain of illegal commerce the card is purchased."

Bello, who lived on Indiana Avenue, was deported in 2000. She was also indicted Monday on one count of unlawful re-entry into the United States.

Lasher said that there is no standard profile for the people who manufacture fake IDs. And the people who need fake documents is varied, but the biggest market is found among people who need only a Social Security number to give to an employer to secure a job.

"As for those who seek and purchase such cards, certainly noncitizens who do not have authorization from the Department of Homeland Security to work in the U.S. are a significant part of that market," Lasher said.

William Gheen, the president of Americans for Legal Immigration, partly attributes the misuse of Social Security numbers to employers who don't make a good-faith effort to verify the information provided by workers. Americans for Legal Immigration is a political action committee that monitors immigration issues around the country. "Illegal immigration is subverting our entire system of documents," Gheen said. "If employers were not giving illegal aliens jobs, most would not be here."

Lasher said that employers are "required by law to make a good-faith effort" to ensure the accuracy of the information provided on wage reports. The Web site of the Social Security Administration has a verification system that allows employers to match Social Security numbers with federal records.

Employers play a role identifying fake IDs and the misuse of Social Security numbers, Lasher said. Many cases of misuse are identified when employers submit a wage report, and are later notified by officials that the numbers don't match.

"The challenge at SSA is dealing with is these erroneous wage reports from employers," Lasher said. "Employers also take corrective action when notified by the Social Security administration that employees have had wages reported that could not be matched to an account."

• Titan Barksdale can be reached at 727-7369 or at tbarksdale@wsjournal.com