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Date: 03-19-2024
Case Style:
Case Number: 1:20-cr-10228
Judge: Patti B. Saris
Court: The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Plaintiff's Attorney: The United States Attorney’s Office for Boston
Defendant's Attorney: Erin R. Opperman - 857-233-4602
Description:
Final defendant to be sentenced in connection with $2 million scheme
A Lowell woman was sentenced for her role in a scheme to use the stolen identities of United States citizens from Puerto Rico to fraudulently purchase vehicles.
Arialka Moya, 35, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris to six months in prison and three years of supervised release, with the first year to be served in home confinement. In November 2023, Moya pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and false representation of a Social Security number. Moya was charged by criminal complaint in September 2020 along with seven other co-conspirators.
In January 2019, Moya visited a Massachusetts car dealership and applied for a loan to purchase a vehicle worth over $60,000. In support of the car loan application, Moya provided stolen biographical information of a real United States citizen, including a fraudulent Puerto Rico driver’s license and a Social Security card, as proof of identification. Additionally, Moya used or prepared to use at least nine stolen identities to fraudulently open credit card accounts.
Moya is the final defendant to be sentenced in this case. In total, Moya and her co-conspirators fraudulently purchased at least 47 vehicles and over $270,000 in other merchandise using the credit of identity theft victims, resulting in losses of over $2 million. The co-conspirators have been ordered to pay over $781,000 in restitution to victims who submitted claims.
Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations, in New England; John E. Mawn Jr., Interim Colonel of the Massachusetts State Police; and Brockton Police Chief Brenda Perez made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by the Lowell, Lawrence, Methuen, Haverhill, Woburn and Dartmouth Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elianna J. Nuzum and Adam W. Deitch of the Criminal Division prosecuted the case.
The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigation’s Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force (DBFTF), a specialized investigative group comprising personnel from various state, local, and federal agencies with expertise in detecting, deterring, and disrupting organizations and individuals involved in various types of document, identity, and benefit fraud schemes.
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