Leah B. Foley United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts | Department of Justice
A Vietnamese man residing in Braintree, Massachusetts, has been sentenced to 25 months in prison for passport fraud and aggravated identity theft. Truong Nguyen, also known as "John Doe," used the stolen identity of a deceased child to work as a paramedic and firefighter. He attended the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy and was employed at the Melrose Fire Department under the victim's name.
Nguyen, 50, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper and is subject to deportation after serving his sentence. In March 2025, he pleaded guilty to the charges after being arrested in May 2024 and indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2024.
"This defendant has illegally resided in the United States for over 30 years, assuming false identities to dodge deportation resulting from a 1991 felony conviction," said United States Attorney Leah B. Foley. "For the last six years, Mr. Nguyen exploited the identity of a deceased child to avoid accountability for a litany of criminal offenses."
Matthew O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Boston Field Office stated that "deterring, detecting, and investigating U.S. passport and visa fraud are essential to protecting the integrity of consular processes."
In March 2023, Nguyen applied for a passport using documents with the victim's information at a post office in Weymouth. The Boston Passport Agency later verified that the provided details matched those of a deceased individual who died in Boston in 2002 at age 13.
The investigation revealed that Nguyen obtained multiple government-issued identification documents using the victim's identity since June 2018 and used it to gain employment as an EMT-Paramedic.
From November 2023 to January 2024, Nguyen attended firefighting training using this identity before working at Melrose Fire Department until his arrest.
Further investigations showed that Nguyen had been involved in previous fraudulent activities dating back to when he entered the United States from Vietnam as a Legal Permanent Resident (LPR) in 1979. His LPR status was revoked following a burglary conviction leading to an order for deportation which was not executed.
U.S. Attorney Foley and DSS SAC O’Brien announced this case outcome with assistance from local police departments and district attorney offices involved.
