A veteran flight attendant worked for United for 23 years using a false identity

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Aveteran flight attendant stole the identity of a dead American child and used the false name to work for United Airlines for 23 years, according to a federal court record.

In a complaint filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston, investigators from the Diplomatic Security Service accused Brazilian national Ricardo Cesar Guedes of identity theft of deceased US-born William Ericson Ladd. According to the complaint, Guedes went by Eric Ladd and used the stolen identity to illegally work for United Airlines.

Ladd was born in 1974 and died in a car crash in 1979 in Washington state, just a month before his fifth birthday, according to the complaint. Ladd's mother, Debra Lynn Hays, confirmed the boy's birth and death to DSS special agents in July 2021.

Investigators allege Guedes was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1972, but assumed Ladd's identity in 1998 when he successfully applied for a US passport using Ladd's name. Since then, Guedes renewed his passport six times until December 2020 when the State Department flagged the application for "various fraud indicators."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/a-veteran-flight-attendant-worked-for-united-for-23-years-using-a-false-identity-federal-court-complaint-says/ar-AASosF1

[dalton99a]

1. How he got caught:

The unraveling of Guedes’ long fraud began in 2020 when he applied for a renewal on his passport. Despite having the document issued several times already, this time the authorities were alert. The State Department said there were several ‘fraud indicators’ within his application, and launched an investigation as a result.

Notable was the issuance date of his social security number – 1996 – which would have been when Ladd was 22 years old. The Department also found a death certificate for William Ericson Ladd, which had the same date of birth as the United flight attendant was claiming.

As part of their investigation, the mother of the deceased child Debra Green was contacted. She was shocked to learn that someone had been using her son’s identity. Guedes’ own mother was identified from Facebook photos, and advised authorities that she had never heard of Eric Ladd but that she had a son living in the US.

The fraudster was finally arrested in Houston Airport as he passed through the crewmember checkpoint to the secure area of the airport. He now faces trial for aggravated identity theft, impersonating a US citizen, entering a secure airport area with fake documents and passport fraud.

https://simpleflying.com/united-airlines-employee-identity-theft/

[Delphinus]

2. He lived

within the law it seems ... other than taking on the dead person's identity.