By Christine O’Connor –
At the United States District Court in Boston, U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton sentenced Felipe Batista, 48, of Brighton to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Judge Gorton also ordered Batista to pay restitution in the amount of $190,281 to the U.S. Social Security Administration and MassHealth.
Batista, who was first charged as “John Doe,” pleaded guilty to one count of misuse of a passport and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Batista arrived at Boston Logan International Airport on a commercial flight from the Dominican Republic on March 4, 2020. While attempting to pass inspection by Customs and Border Protection, he provided officers a U.S. passport bearing his image, but the name, date of birth and Social Security number of a different person.
Additionally, Batista used the identity of a United States citizen to fraudulently acquire and obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits from federal and state government programs.