A federal grand jury in Boise has indicted a man accused of building a false identity with a fake birth certificate and then using it for nearly a decade to vote in two elections, collect Medicaid benefits, obtain a U.S. passport, and buy a gun. Fredy Avila Gomez now faces eight federal counts that prosecutors say trace back to that single fraudulent document.
The indictment charges Gomez with Voting by Alien, False Statement in Application of Passport, and Fraud in Connection with Identification Documents, along with wire fraud, theft of government funds, and firearms violations. Prosecutors say Gomez used fraudulent identity documents to illegally obtain Medicaid benefits funded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. ATF Seattle also ATF Seattle
flagged the indictment, noting the firearms counts included unlawful possession of a firearm and a false statement made during a firearm purchase.
The allegations center on a false birth certificate that Gomez allegedly used to obtain state identification cards. The scheme allegedly ran for more than nine years, from at least March 2017 through June 2026, according to the Idaho Statesman, which reports court records indicate Gomez used a false birth certificate to obtain state identification cards.
Fake ID Allegedly Opened Doors to Voting, a Passport and a Gun
Those state-issued cards, the newspaper's report notes, were then allegedly leveraged to secure a U.S. passport and purchase a firearm, with Gomez making false claims about his citizenship status on federal firearm transaction forms. The indictment also alleges Gomez falsely claimed U.S. citizenship to register to vote in Idaho, then cast illegal ballots in two separate contests — the May 2022 primary election and the November 2024 general election. Federal law bars noncitizens from voting in federal elections under 18 U.S.C. § 611.
Votebeat identified Gomez as the Idaho defendant in its report on noncitizen voting cases. The indictment also charges him with unlawful firearm possession.
Multi-Agency Investigation Led to Charges
The case against Gomez came out of a joint investigation involving Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the HHS Office of Inspector General, and the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Gomez made his initial federal court appearance Monday in Boise before U.S. Magistrate Judge Debora K. Grasham, the Idaho Statesman reported. He faces a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison if convicted. As with any indictment, the charges represent allegations only, and Gomez is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in federal court.
Part of a Wider Federal Crackdown
Gomez's case is one piece of a broader nationwide push by the U.S. Department of Justice, which in September charged 16 individuals across states including Texas, Georgia, New Jersey and Idaho with noncitizen voting or election-related crimes, per Votebeat's reporting. Hoodline has covered related cases in that sweep, including a Del Rio woman charged with illegal voting and a Carlisle couple swept into the same effort.
Despite the recent flurry of indictments, federal noncitizen voting prosecutions remain historically rare. Reuters figures cited in Hoodline's earlier reporting on the statute's enforcement history put charges under 18 U.S.C. § 611 at 129 nationwide since the law passed in 1996, with 73 convictions or guilty pleas. The case involves allegations beyond voting, including identity theft, passport fraud, and federal firearms violations.
