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Press Release
Jacksonville, Florida – United States Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez announces the return of an indictment charging Elizabeth Farina-Torres (42, Orange Park) with five counts of fraudulent use of a Social Security number (SSN) and five counts of aggravated identity theft. If convicted, she faces up to five years in federal prison on each count of fraudulently using an SSN, and a mandatory penalty of two years’ imprisonment for each identity theft charge. The United States also notified Farina-Torres that it will seek restitution for the victim of the offenses.
According to court documents, in approximately 2008, Farina-Torres, an undocumented alien and a citizen of the Dominican Republic, began using an SSN belonging to a U.S. citizen with a similar name and the same date of birth. In 2017, the Orange Park Medical Center reported to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) a complaint from the citizen-victim that someone had used her SSN at the hospital four times in 2016. Hospital records showed that the person who had used the SSN was Farina-Torres.
The victim, who lived in Palm Beach County, told investigators that her credit report reflected collection accounts totaling $4,583.92 arising from the four hospital visits. The credit report also reflected two fraudulently obtained credit cards and charges from a Jacksonville radiology office in the amount of $3,947. The victim also had received calls from collection agencies about accounts that were fraudulently opened by Farina-Torres. The victim stated that she has spent countless hours repairing the credit issues caused by Farina-Torres, that she had to engage a credit monitoring and repair service to assist her, and that her credit score was damaged as a result of Farina-Torres’s actions.
Further, in July 2016, the victim was mistakenly arrested at Miami International Airport pursuant to a warrant issued in Massachusetts for the arrest of Farina-Torres. The victim was detained before eventually convincing law enforcement that she was a victim of identity theft.
During the investigation, CCSO learned that Farina-Torres had used the victim’s SSN at an Orange Park rental furniture store in April 2015. Farina-Torres failed to make the required payments for the furniture and most of the furniture was repossessed, except for some mattresses that Farina-Torres said had been damaged and thrown out. Farina-Torres was charged with failure to redeliver leased property, but the charge was subsequently dropped.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has violated one or more of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Arnold B. Corsmeier.