The United States Attorney’s Office District of Massachusetts Released the Following; BOSTON, MA – A former Chelsea resident was convicted late Friday afternoon in federal court of charges arising from her use of another woman’s identity to defraud various federal and state government agencies, by hiding her true income and assets when she applied for various government benefits. Acting United States Attorney Michael K. Loucks; A. Joseph DeNucci, Auditor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; Michael Wixted, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - New England Region; Robert Malaby, Acting Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service - Boston Division; Brian A. Kyes, Chief of the Chelsea Police Department; and Jeffrey Paula, Special Agent in Charge of the Office of the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration - Office of Investigations - Boston Field Division, announced that LIZBETH VALERIO, age 40, formerly of Lynn, MA and Chelsea, MA, was convicted by a jury before United States District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of three counts of mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Evidence presented during the four-day trial showed that from 1995 to 2007, VALERIO applied for and received government benefits under her true name, including cash and food stamps benefits from the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, subsidized public housing assistance and Supplemental Security Income from the Social Security Administration. At the same time, VALERIO earned income and held assets under the name and social security number of a resident of Puerto Rico, information which VALERIO had obtained from a third party in or about 1991. VALERIO never reported any of the income earned and assets held under the second name to the agencies from which she sought benefits, in spite of requirements that demanded that she report all earned income and assets held. As such, VALERIO was able to obtain benefits for which she would
have been ineligible had she disclosed all of her income and asset information. Judge Saylor scheduled sentencing for September 4, 2009. VALERIO faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years on each count of mail fraud and a mandatory minimum sentence of 2 years on the charge of aggravated identity theft.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Special Investigations of the Office of the Auditor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Chelsea Police Department, and the Office of the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Vassili N. Thomadakis and James P. Dowden of Loucks’ Economic Crimes Unit
|
