Southern Maine Man Sentenced for Misusing a Social Security Number

A 31-year-old Portland man was sentenced Friday to 14 months in prison and two years of supervised release for misusing a social security number assigned to another person.

On October 26, 2016, Carlos Rafael Acosta-Joaquin, a/k/a “Kelvin Valle-Alicea was convicted after a three-day jury trial. The evidence at trial established that the defendant, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, entered the United States through Puerto Rico without proper documentation after he purchased the social security card and birth certificate of Kelvin Valle-Alicea, a citizen of Puerto Rico.

In 2015, while assuming Valle-Alicea’s identity, the defendant used Valle-Alicea’s name and social security number on a state court form after he received a speeding ticket.

Acosta-Joaquin has been in custody since February 24, 2016, when U.S. Customs and Immigration Service agents arrested him on immigration charges. Federal agents arrested him on social security fraud charges the next day. A condition of supervised release requires that he surrender to immigration authorities upon his release from prison.

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations; the Social Security Administration, Office of Inspector General; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Fraud Investigations and Recovery Unit.