Jamaican National Pleads Guilty to Passport Fraud

Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that MARK ANTHONY GOULDBOURNE, 41, of Hartford, waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty today in Hartford federal court to one count of making a false statement in a passport application.

According to court documents and statements made in court, GOULDBOURNE is a native and citizen of Jamaica.  In March 2011, he submitted an application for a U.S. passport, in the name of another individual, at a U.S. Post Office in Hartford.  Claiming to be this individual, GOULDBOURNE presented to the passport acceptance agent a New York birth certificate and a Pennsylvania identity card, and then signed the passport application under oath.  Passport authorities flagged the application as possibly fraudulent and did not issue the passport.

In May 2015, law enforcement determined that GOULDBOURNE was an inmate at Hartford Correctional Center under the same identity used in the fraudulent passport application. In an interview with law enforcement on May 7, 2015, GOULDBOURNE admitted that he had submitted the fraudulent passport application in March 2011, and that he had obtained the Pennsylvania identity card in the name of the other individual.

GOULDBOURNE, who is detained, is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny on March 7, 2015, at which time he faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Harold H. Chen.