TAMPA — A 28-year-old illegal alien from Honduras has been sentenced to two years and two months in federal prison after using a stolen identity and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to land a construction job in Pinellas County, United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announced.
U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday imposed the sentence on Nidia Roxana Maradiaga-Flores, who was found guilty on Jan. 14 of aggravated identity theft, false representation of a Social Security number and making a false claim of United States citizenship for employment purposes.
According to trial testimony and evidence, Maradiaga-Flores applied for employment with Archer Western-de Moya Group Joint Venture II in Pinellas County on March 23, 2022. The Joint Venture is enrolled in E-Verify, a web-based system through which employers electronically confirm the employment eligibility of their employees. On her I-9 form submitted through the E-Verify system, Maradiaga-Flores falsely identified herself as a United States citizen and used another person’s means of identification to defeat the verification process.
Maradiaga-Flores had no lawful status in the United States at the time of the application or at any point during the investigation, according to federal prosecutors.
The case drew the resources of seven federal, state and local agencies: Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General, the United States Border Patrol, the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. The breadth of the multi-agency investigation underscores the federal government’s focus on identity fraud tied to illegal immigration and employment verification systems.
Special Assistant United States Attorney Joseph Wheeler III and Assistant United States Attorney Karyna Valdes prosecuted the case in the Middle District of Florida.