Guatemalan Man Sentenced for Transferring False Identification Documents

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – United States Attorney Peter G. Strasser announced that MARIO ARGUETA-CHUN, age 41, a native of Guatemala, was sentenced today after previously pleading guilty to a one-count bill of information charging him with unlawfully transferring false identification documents.

United States District Court Judge Eldon E. Fallon sentenced ARGUETA-CHUN to time served (10 months of imprisonment) and a $100 special assessment fee. The defendant will be surrendered to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for removal proceedings.

According to court documents, in November 2016, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) received information that an unidentified male was selling fraudulent Social Security and U.S. Lawful Permanent Resident cards to buyers in the New Orleans area. During the investigation, agents learned that ARGUETA-CHUN was one of the people selling the fraudulent identification cards. As a result, the agents purchased documents during undercover buys from the defendant on six (6) occasions, wherein the buyer would have his picture on the documents along with a fraudulent Social Security number. A Forensic Document Examiner analyzed all of the documents purchased from ARGUETA-CHUN and determined that they were counterfeit. The Social Security numbers belonged to people other than the names placed onto the documents and contained holograms, symbols, and sequences of numbers and letters which made the documents appear to have been issued under the authority of the United States.