A 69-year-old man from the Dominican Republic who was living in Boston without legal status has been sentenced to more than a year in federal prison for using a stolen identity to collect tens of thousands of dollars in public benefits. Victor Suazo Reynoso was ordered to pay back more than $73,000 combined to Massachusetts benefit programs after admitting he used a U.S. citizen's name, birthday, and Social Security number to apply for and receive aid he was not entitled to.
Suazo Reynoso was sentenced on September 2 to one year and one day in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, according to The Boston Globe. He had pleaded guilty in May to false representation of a Social Security number and illegal acquisition of SNAP benefits. Prosecutors say he fraudulently obtained more than $70,000 in MassHealth and SNAP benefits by using the stolen identity to apply for aid, and he also used the same stolen name and Social Security number to obtain a Massachusetts driver's license.
As part of his sentence, Suazo Reynoso was ordered to pay $54,931 in restitution to MassHealth and $18,434 in restitution to the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, per prosecutors. He is also subject to deportation once he completes his prison sentence, the paper reports.
Part of a Wider Federal Crackdown
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the case.
The sentencing lands squarely within a targeted enforcement push that Foley launched earlier this year. In March, she established a dedicated Benefit & Voter Fraud Team in the District of Massachusetts, appointing senior prosecutors and opening a public fraud hotline to investigate misuse of public assistance programs. That effort has already produced other high-profile cases: in June, federal prosecutors in Boston charged 15 people — including 11 undocumented immigrants — in a $1.4 million public benefits fraud crackdown, a case Hoodline covered in Boston Feds Charge 15 in $1.4M Benefits Fraud.
Other Recent Sentences and Schemes
Suazo Reynoso's sentence follows a similar case handled by the same federal court in May, when Senior U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris sentenced Lina Maria Orovio-Hernandez, an undocumented Colombian national who had lived in Boston under a stolen identity for more than two decades, to 33 months in prison for stealing over $400,000 in federal benefits including SNAP and disability funds. In February, federal prosecutors also charged four Massachusetts residents in a $1 million multi-state scheme that used more than 100 stolen identities to obtain SNAP benefits later used to purchase food for a Leominster restaurant, according to CBS News.
What's at Stake Legally
Under federal law, illegal acquisition of SNAP benefits carries statutory maximum penalties of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while falsely representing a Social Security number also carries up to five years in prison, according to Accounting Today. MassHealth delivers coverage to eligible low-income residents, per Mass.gov.
State Response: Chip-Enabled EBT Cards
Alongside the federal prosecutions, Massachusetts has been moving to tighten security around how benefits are delivered. In April, Governor Maura Healey announced the state would become one of the first in the nation to transition Electronic Benefit Transfer cards to chip-and-tap technology to prevent skimming and identity theft, a shift Hoodline detailed in Healey Orders Chip EBT Cards to Fight Fraud. That move followed $15.5 million in supplemental budget funding lawmakers approved in August 2025 for the Department of Transitional Assistance to upgrade EBT cards from magnetic stripes to chip technology, after advocacy groups warned that stripes made cards vulnerable to skimming rings, per the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute.
The federal push in Massachusetts focuses on rooting out identity-based benefit fraud. Suazo Reynoso's case is one example of that effort in the state.
