Massachusetts Man Guilty of Passport FraudU.S. Department of JusticeConcord, NH June 5, 2007 Thomas P. Colantuono Jose Dolore Herrera Medina, 54, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, pled guilty today to a one-count information for making false statements in an application for a U.S. Passport, punishable by up to a maximum of 5 years in prison or a$250,000.00 fine, or both. Herrera Medina was arrested on a complaint issued February 26,2007, by the U.S. District Court, after agents of the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service uncovered the fraud at the National Passport Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Herrera Medina, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, pled guilty to willfully and knowingly making false statements to the State Department in a passport application in order to fraudulently obtain a United States passport. In August of 2006, Herrera Medina submitted an application in which he claimed that he was born in Puerto Rico. Herrera Medina’s sentencing is set for September 18, 2007, at 10:30 A.M. U.S. Attorney Colantuono stated: “This office will continue to commit its resources to ensuring that passports are not issued to persons who misrepresent their citizenship or falsify passport applications.” This case resulted from an ongoing initiative, known as “Operation Checkmate,” to identify false passport applications that are submitted for adjudication to the National Passport Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The National Passport Center processes and adjudicates approximately two million applications each year, or one quarter of all United States passport applications. Operation Checkmate is a joint initiative of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Hampshire, the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service, the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alfred Rubega is handling the prosecution. Contact: Thomas P. Colantuono Alfred Rubega |
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