Knowledge, experiences, abilities – basic transferable skills that can be applied to a variety of different jobs and career fields, also known as “portable skills” because they can be taken with you. Pick up and go, from one job to another, one role to another, or one industry to another. For fraudsters that portable skill is often misusing a stolen identity. And for Tony Mertile, Junior Mertile, Allen Bien-Aime, and James Legerme by using stolen identities, they engaged in over seven deceptive practices to gain financial and personal benefits. Practices that defrauded various U.S. federally funded programs of almost $5 million from various federal, state and private agencies, with no regard to the victims and the U.S. taxpayer.
Using stolen personal identifying information, Mertile, Mertile, Bien-Aimee, and Legerme engaged in schemes to submit fraudulent applications to multiple state unemployment agencies, including the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training. They submitted fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications for pandemic-related benefits made available under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act – ultimately merging into one the of the largest schemes ever to defraud Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act programs in the United States! The defendants also submitted fraudulent applications in the names of other people to federal and state agencies to obtain tax refunds, stimulus payments, and disaster relief funds and loans. All schemes’ proceeds were deposited into accounts established with the stolen identities.
On March 20, 2025, Mertile, Mertile, Bien-Aimee, and Legerme all pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Each have been sentenced to prison, ranging in terms of six to four years – along with paying $4,456,927.36 in restitution which was partially achieved with the hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of Rolex watches and assorted jewelry, and over $1.1 million dollars in cash that was seized from their residences at the time of their arrests.
Great job by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Pandemic aid fraud scheme leads to lengthy prison sentences” published by WJAR News on March 20, 2025.
Four Florida men were each sentenced in federal court in Rhode Island Thursday to years in prison, in what the U.S. Attorney’s office calls “one of the largest schemes in the country” to defraud COVID-19 pandemic relief aid.
Authorities accused the men of illegally obtaining nearly $5 million from various aid programs. The scheme also targeted a state agency in Rhode Island. After pleading guilty, accused ringleader Tony Mertile, 33, was sentenced to six years in federal prison.
