Marco Antonio Lopez Gutierrez, an illegal alien residing in Lancaster, was sentenced on July 17 to four years in federal prison for a decades-long aggravated identity fraud scheme.
According to court records, Gutierrez engaged in an elaborate identity theft operation that spanned approximately 28 years and three states. He used the victim’s Puerto Rican birth certificate and social security number to obtain a U.S. passport, multiple state driver’s licenses, credit cards, and an FHA loan under the victim’s name. In the mid-1990s, Gutierrez was convicted of fraud, larceny, and assault and served time in a North Carolina state prison using the stolen identity.
The victim estimated he spent thousands of hours contacting banks, law enforcement agencies, and creditors before Gutierrez’s arrest trying to clear his name. The scheme affected the victim’s ability to borrow from financial institutions and prevented him from obtaining a state driver’s license because one had already been issued in his name. The defendant also caused law enforcement to question the victim on at least two occasions after falsely reporting that he himself was the identity theft victim.
After being arrested on federal charges, Gutierrez lied about his identity to both the presiding United States Magistrate and the United States Probation Office so he could obtain appointed counsel at taxpayer expense under the victim’s information. U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie sentenced him to 48 months’ imprisonment and ordered him to pay $79,010.44 in restitution to his victim. Following incarceration, Gutierrez will be deported.
The case was investigated by U.S. Diplomatic Security Services and the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Kerry B. McTigue prosecuted it.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina protects communities across South Carolina with a team of 120 prosecutors and support professionals who manage criminal prosecutions as well as civil cases for the federal government, according to its official website.