Dorchester Man Guilty Of Passport Fraud

BOSTON – A Dorchester man pleaded guilty yesterday to passport fraud.

Khanh Phan, 28, pleaded guilty before Senior U.S. District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro to making false statements in a passport application and aggravated identity theft. Sentencing is scheduled for March 27, 2014.

On July 25, 2011, Phan submitted a passport application at a Dorchester post office. In the application, Phan claimed to be a different individual, providing the name, date of birth, and social security number of this other person, as well as a birth certificate and Massachusetts driver’s license in the other person’s name. Because Phan had worked with this individual at a Boston-based business in 2007, Phan knew not only that he was making false statements regarding his identity in the passport application, but also that he was using the name and other identifying information of a real person.

Phan faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for making false statements in the passport application; and a mandatory sentence of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft, which must run consecutively to any sentence imposed for the passport fraud.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and David W. Hall, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Boston Field Office, made the announcement today. The case is being prosecuted by Robert E. Richardson and Carlos A. López of Ortiz’s Major Crimes Unit.