Neida Lopez, Identity Theft, Massachusetts 2023

BOSTON – Neida Lopez, 45, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, is headed to federal prison after being sentenced to 28 months for her role in a brazen scheme to steal identities and rake in fraudulent credit and loan money. U.S. Senior District Court Judge Timothy Hillman handed down the sentence on February 3, 2023, along with a three-year term of supervised release and a hefty $20,000 restitution order.

Lopez pleaded guilty in May 2022 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. The charges stem from a September 2020 criminal complaint, followed by a federal grand jury indictment later that month. The operation wasn’t a one-off; Lopez personally appeared at a bank branch in South Portland, Maine, in February 2020, using another person’s information to open a checking account. That stolen identity was then leveraged to secure a credit card, which Lopez and her crew promptly maxed out to the tune of $20,000.

But the scheme didn’t stop there. Lopez was also held accountable for a related conspiracy targeting the Small Business Administration (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. Co-conspirators used stolen identities to open fraudulent bank accounts, then linked those accounts to receive the SBA funds. Roughly $250,000 of the fraudulently obtained cash was funneled through the purchase of iPhones in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, quickly re-sold for cold, hard cash. A significant portion was also wired directly to individuals in the Dominican Republic, obscuring the trail of stolen money. The total fraudulent take from the SBA scheme soared to over $452,000.

This isn’t a solo operation. Edwin Acevedo, one of Lopez’s co-conspirators, pleaded guilty to his role on January 5, 2023, and is slated for sentencing on May 16, 2023. Federal authorities are clearly continuing to untangle the network behind this elaborate fraud. The case was jointly investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Massachusetts State Police, and the Brockton Police Department, with assistance from multiple other local departments.

The announcement of Lopez’s sentencing was made by United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins, along with Matthew B. Millhollin, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England, Colonel Christopher Mason, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, and Brockton Police Chief Brenda Perez. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elianna Nuzum and Adam Deitch are leading the prosecution. The investigation was spearheaded by Homeland Security Investigation’s Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force (DBFTF), a multi-agency unit focused on combating document and identity fraud.

This case is part of the Department of Justice’s COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force, established by the Attorney General to aggressively combat pandemic-related fraud. Anyone with information regarding COVID-19 fraud is urged to report it to the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or through the NCDF Web Complaint Form: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

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