CONCORD, NH –Louis Perez, of Brooklyn, New York, pled guilty today to willfully and knowingly making false statements to the State Department in a passport application in order to fraudulently obtain a United States passport. Perez was indicted in U.S. District Court on March 31, 2010, after agents of the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service uncovered the fraud at the National Passport Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

            U.S. Attorney John P. Kacavas reported that in April of 2007, Perez submitted a passport application to the State Department in which he used a name, date of birth and social security number that were not his own.  Perez is scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. District Court Judge Paul J. Barbadoro on November 1, 2010 at 9:30 A.M.

            This case resulted from an ongoing initiative, known as “Operation Checkmate” which identifies 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 five million applications each year.  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 Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Alfred Rubega is prosecuting this case.

 

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