Haverhill Woman Sentenced to More Than Two Years in Prison for Conspiracy to Use Stolen Identities to Obtain Fraudulent Credit Cards

BOSTON – A Haverhill woman was sentenced on Feb. 3, 2023 for her role in a scheme to use stolen identities to fraudulently apply for and utilize bank accounts and credit cards. 

Neida Lopez, 45, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge Timothy Hillman to 28 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Lopez was also required to pay restitution of $20,000. In May 2022, Lopez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Lopez and multiple co-conspirators were charged by criminal complaint in September 2020. She was subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury later that month. 

In furtherance of the scheme, in February 2020, Lopez appeared in person at a bank branch in South Portland, Maine and provided personal identifying information of a U.S. citizen on an application to open a checking account. She later used that same stolen identity to apply for and obtain a credit card which she and her co-conspirators maxed out the $20,000 limit.

At sentencing, Lopez was also held responsible for her role in a related conspiracy that used other stolen identities to apply for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, made available under the Small Business Administration (SBA). The co-conspirators used stolen identities to open fraudulent bank accounts, which were then linked to other fraudulent bank accounts set up to receive the SBA funds. Approximately $250,000 of the fraudulently obtained funds were then laundered through the purchasing of iPhones in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which were then re-sold for cash. A portion of the funds was also wired to others in the Dominican Republic. In total, over $452,000 in SBA funds were fraudulently obtained in connection with the scheme. One of Lopez’s co-conspirators, Edwin Acevedo, pleaded guilty to his role in in the conspiracy on Jan. 5, 2023. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 16, 2023.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Matthew B. Millhollin, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England; Colonel Christopher Mason, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; and Brockton Police Chief Brenda Perez made the announcement today. Assistance was provided by the Lowell, Lawrence, Methuen, Haverhill, Woburn and Dartmouth Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elianna Nuzum and Adam Deitch of Rollins’ Criminal Division are prosecuting the case. The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigation’s Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force (DBFTF), a specialized investigative group comprising personnel from various state, local, and federal agencies with expertise in detecting, deterring, and disrupting organizations and individuals involved in various types of document, identity and benefit fraud schemes.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus
 
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.