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HomeCRIME & PUNISHMENTCYBERCRIMEEtna Man, 87-year-old Napoleon Gonzalez, Who Used Deceased Brother’s Identity for Decades...

Etna Man, 87-year-old Napoleon Gonzalez, Who Used Deceased Brother’s Identity for Decades Fined $175,757

An Etna man has been sentenced in U.S. District Court in Bangor for identity theft, passport fraud, Social Security fraud and mail fraud.

Napoleon Gonzalez, 87, had been found guilty of six federal charges on August 18, 2023, following a two-day trial in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

U.S. District Judge John A. Woodcock, Jr. ordered Gonzalez to pay $175,757 in restitution to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, citing Gonzalez’s age and health, sentenced him to five years of probation.

According to court records, beginning in the mid-1960s, Gonzalez took on the identity of his brother, Guillermo, who had died as an infant in 1939.

In 1981, Gonzalez applied for a Social Security number in his deceased brother’s name and filed applications for Social Security retirement benefits in his own name in 1999 and in his brother’s name in 2001.

Over the years, Napoleon Gonzalez obtained multiple passports bearing Guillermo Gonzalez’s name, most recently in October 2017, a passport he used to travel to Canada in July 2018.

Gonzalez collected retirement benefits under both identities until March 2020, when investigators requested the suspension of benefits being paid to Guillermo Gonzalez pending investigation.

Gonzalez 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.

In the letter, he requested a prompt reply, claiming that due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, he was locked in his apartment, unable to drive and dependent on neighbours to obtain food and other items.

Gonzalez also obtained Maine state identification cards under his identity and his brother’s. In January 2020, the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles uncovered the decades-long ruse and alerted federal authorities.

“The jury conviction and this sentence hold Napoleon Gonzalez accountable for his intolerable crimes. Using a Social Security number (SSN) not assigned to him, Gonzalez furnished false information and concealed information to fraudulently obtain Social Security benefits,” said Hannibal ‘Mike’ Ware, Acting Inspector General for the Social Security Administration (SSA).

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