Adrian Joseph of St. Lucia has been living the life in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The life of someone else. For twenty years! The individual, whose identity Joseph used, informed the government that his identity documents were stolen in the late 1990s. But that didn’t stop Joseph from getting multiple fraudulent identity documents to sustain his fake identity.
Using his stolen identity, Joseph has obtained from various governmental agencies identity documents, including a U.S. passport, a Social Security Account Number card, a City of Bridgeport voting registration card, and a Connecticut driver’s license from the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles (“CT DMV”).
And as if our fraudster hadn’t obtained enough identity documents, in February 2020, Joseph visited the CT DMV in Norwalk and successfully applied for and received a REAL ID driver’s license under the name of his stolen identity. He had all the documents! He just needed a utility bill to required to prove his residence. The REAL ID legislation was in response to the recommendations made by the 9/11 commission to reform the U.S. Intelligence community and to implement other security measures to prevent future terrorist attacks against the U.S. In short, the purpose of REAL ID is to make our identity documents more consistent and secure. The reality of REAL ID appears to be something different. Maybe some identity verification services would be a good addition to this process.
Under the Joseph pleaded guilty to one count of use of a passport secured by a false statement, and one count of false representation of a social security account number and was given a nine-month prison sentence, which he served awaiting trial. He now faces deportation proceedings.
Shout out to the U.S. Department of state who investigated this case.
Today’s Fraud of the Day is based on an article “A man lived in CT under an assumed identity for 20 years, gaining a U.S. passport. Now he faces deportation” published by Hartford Courant on October 26, 2022
A man who had been living in Bridgeport was sentenced Tuesday to about nine months in prison — time already served — for offenses related to his acquiring federal documents under an assumed identity, according to authorities.
Adrian Joseph, 55, a citizen of St. Lucia, had been living in Bridgeport under an assumed identity for approximately 20 years, according to federal authorities
