Relying on your siblings has its advantages, which was the case for Napoleon Gonzalez. Even though his brother, Guillermo Gonzalez died as an infant in 1939, Napoleon relied on his brother’s identity to fraudulently apply for and receive Social Security benefits for both of them for over 20 years – double dipping on the U.S. taxpayer’s dollar.
In January 2020, the Maine Bureau for Motor Vehicles discovered Napoleon’s fraud after scrubbing through all of the photos in their database using new facial recognition technology. They discovered Napoleon’s photograph in his driver’s license, issued in 2018, was remarkably like that of Guillermo’s, issued in 2015. Napoleon collected retirement benefits under both identities until March 2020, when investigators requested the suspension of benefits being paid to Guillermo pending investigation. Napoleon mailed a letter to the Social Security Administration, signing the name Guillermo Gonzalez and the Social Security number assigned to that identity, asking for an explanation for the suspension.
This is not Napoleon’s first experience in fraud. According to a 1985 story in the New York Daily News, Napoleon had been arrested in Puerto Rico for faking his own death. Napoleon had purchased a man’s body for $7,000 and buried the body in his military uniform, and claimed him as Napoleon Gonzalez. Before his “death,” Napoleon had taken out a $300,000 life insurance policy! Low and behold, shortly after Napoleon’s “death,” a man identifying himself as Guillermo Gonzalez showed up claiming to be Napoleon’s brother and the beneficiary of his estate. Napoleon Gonzalez was eventually charged with falsifying documents and fraud, although it apparently didn’t break the dependent brotherly bond Napoleon had cultivated.
Napoleon Gonzalez, 87, was sentenced to five to 20 years in prison for identity theft, passport fraud, Social Security fraud and mail fraud. He was also ordered to serve five months of probation.
Great job by the Maine Bureau for Motor Vehicles in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Etna man ordered to pay $175,000 for stealing dead brother’s identity” published by the Portland Press Herald on November 11, 2024,
Napoleon Gonzalez, 87, was given 5 months of probation and will not have to serve any time behind bars.
Court records contain images of passports that show the face of Napoleon Gonzalez, but the name of his brother Guillermo, who died when he was an infant. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer. An Etna man was ordered to pay back more than $175,000 to the federal government after using his dead brother’s identity to obtain Social Security benefits.
