A Worcester man admitted to a federal courtroom yesterday that he's been playing a long con with Uncle Sam, using a stolen identity to snag himself a U.S. passport after he got booted out of the country, feds say.
Rohan Andrew Brown, slipped up and now faces up to 20 years behind bars, the Department of Justice reported. The 56-year-old Jamaica native, was tossed out of the United States in 2002 after he tightened the cuffs a bit too tight in Connecticut, but took it upon himself to play boomerang without anyone's permission, he slipped in under the radar and got his hands on some poor sap's identity, and now Judge Margaret R. Guzman is set to lay down the law come July 17.
According to court documents, Brown's knack for identity theft didn't stop at passport paperwork, he made himself at home, zipping through life notching up driver's licenses in sunshine California and the Buckeye State for over a decade. His luck ran out when the ink dried on his passport renewal applications in March 2022 and May 2023, which turned out to be one too many ask for the authorities with eagle eyes.
This whole ruse can cost Brown a pretty penny, with each charge of his one-two punch — illegal reentry and passport fraud — carrying a possible price tag of 250 grand each, not to mention supervised release stretch and a heavy date with a prison cell for up to 10 years per charge, though it's up to the federal district court to break out the calculator based on the sentencing guidelines.
The Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy's team cracked the case wide open, alongside Matthew O’Brien, the sagacious Special Agent in Charge of putting paper pirates to bed for the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Boston Field Office, and Todd M. Lyons, who heads the round-em-up posse at the Boston U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations. It's Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen M. Noto waving the prosecutorial banner in this courtroom battle.
