A former Massachusetts firefighter and paramedic from Vietnam, who remains unidentified, has pleaded guilty to federal charges after using a dead teenager's identity for years, authorities said Wednesday.
The Braintree resident officially known as "John Doe" was arrested last year, just a few months after graduating from the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy and being hired by the Melrose Fire Department. Throughout that process, he used the identity of a 13-year-old who died in Boston in 2002, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts.
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Doe pleaded guilty Tuesday to passport fraud and aggravated identity theft. He is due to be sentenced June 12.
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The federal government began investigating Doe in 2023 after he applied for a passport at the U.S. Post Office in Weymouth. Prosecutors said the Boston Passport Agency found a death record matching the identity he provided -- including the name, date of birth, Social Security number and parental information.
Investigators learned Doe had used that identity to obtain a Social Security card in 2018 and Massachusetts driver's licenses in 2018, 2019 and 2023.
Also in 2018, the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles held a fraud hearing after finding through facial recognition technology that Doe had received driver's licenses in two names -- one in the dead teenager's and another under Truong Nguyen.
Authorities said Doe testified at the fraud hearing that the false identity was his own and that Nguyen was his cousin's name. His license was suspended for six months as a result.
During his plea hearing this week, prosecutors said Doe testified under oath that Nguyen is his true identity.
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Investigators found that Doe's records between 1997 and 2018 match information about Nguyen, who entered the U.S. as a legal permanent resident in 1979. That status was revoked in 1995, following a second-degree burglary conviction in 1991.
"Although ordered deported, the investigation revealed that Nguyen was not physically deported to Vietnam," the U.S. Attorney's Office wrote in a press release.
In 2010, Nguyen was arrested on charges of embezzlement and larceny after being accused of stealing $46,000 from the Norwell Firefighters Union, where he was working as an officer.
More than a decade later, under the dead teenager's name, Doe obtained EMT-Basic certification in 2022, and EMT-Paramedic Certification in 2023. He used that identity at the firefighting academy between November of 2023 and January of 2024, serving as a firefighter in Melrose until his arrest May arrest.
Federal prosecutors say the passport fraud charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, while the aggravated identity theft charge is punishable by a mandatory minimum of two years in prison.
After any imposed sentence is completed, prosecutors say he "will be subject to deportation proceedings."
