Escapee Sentenced to 27 Months for Stealing Identity of a Deceased Child

Jon Vincent, a/k/a “Nathan Laskoski,” 45, of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, was sentenced today to 27 months in prison, announced Acting United States Attorney Louis D. Lappen. Defendant Vincent pled guilty in May 2017 to Social Security fraud and aggravated identity theft crimes for his use of the identity of a deceased child for more than two decades. According to the facts admitted to by the defendant during his guilty plea hearing, after being convicted in the state of Texas, the defendant served a prison term, then escaped from a Texas halfway house in 1996. Shortly after his escape, the defendant stole the name of the deceased Nathan Laskoski after visiting a cemetery and finding that the decedent had a birthdate close to Vincent’s own birthdate, to craft a new identity. Vincent subsequently obtained the birth certificate for Laskoski, which he used to apply for a Social Security number in Laskoski’s name.

The defendant has been living using the deceased victim’s stolen identity since mid-1996, and used this identity for various purposes, including to obtain employment, open bank accounts, apply for loans, and to obtain government identification. His use of the stolen identity was discovered when a relative of the deceased victim discovered information on the ancestral website “Ancestry.com” indicating that someone was impersonating the decedent.

The case was investigated by the Social Security Administration, Office of Inspector General, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the United States Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, with assistance from the Lansdale Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Amanda R. Reinitz.