BOSTON – Three individuals have been arrested, and another individual has been charged, with an alleged fraud scheme that used the stolen identities of more than 100 individuals to obtain $440,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The defendants are also alleged to have fraudulently obtained over $700,000 in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington and Nevada.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Justice, the following defendants have been charged by criminal complaint with Conspiracy to Use, Transfer, Acquire and Possess SNAP benefits and will appear in federal court in Worcester at 12:30 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. this afternoon:
- Joel Vicioso Fernandez, 42, of Fitchburg, Mass.;
- Roman Vequiz Fernandez, 32, a Venezuelan national living in Leominster, Mass.; and
- Coralba Albarracin Siniva, 24, a Venezuelan national living in Leominster, Mass.
Raul Fernandez Vicioso, 37, of Fitchburg, Mass., has been charged with Conspiracy to Commit SNAP Fraud, Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud, SNAP benefit Fraud, Aiding and Abetting and Money Laundering. He will appear in federal court in Worcester at a later date.
According to the charging documents, the defendants and their co-conspirators purchased and used the stolen personal information of over 100 real people from multiple states to fraudulently obtain SNAP benefits. The stolen identities were used to create 24 “households” in SNAP applications. All of these applications, submitted in the names of over 100 people, were listed as living in two single-family apartments in Providence, R.I…