Posted on 04/15/2014 10:49:28 AM PDT by Hojczyk
While living the life of luxury on a 1-acre manicured lot, Gloria Valle-Clas collected between $305,000 and $377,000 in food stamps, housing assistance and Medicaid benefits. Using two separate Social Security numbers and as many as 12 aliases, she duped government agencies into sending her monthly assistance checks and picking up her medical bills for nearly a decade.
“Conduct like this should incense all Americans,” U.S. District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp said Thursday. “To be ripping off our government — every agency by every means possible.”
While her attorney Gregg Lerman suggested a roughly 3 1/2-year sentence, Ryskamp said that wasn’t enough. He tacked on roughly another year.
“I just think this is about as low as it gets,” Ryskamp said in sentencing Valle-Clas to 51 months in prison, the maximum allowed under federal rules. He also ordered her to pay $283,359 in restitution.
The truth was, she had plenty of money, she said. Not only did the couple live off their fraudulently obtained government checks, but they pocketed $200,000 when they sold the homes in North Lauderdale. Further, when Valle-Clas persuaded a bank to give her a $200,000 line of credit, she defaulted on $145,000, Bell said.
To emphasize Valle-Clas’ cunning, she showed Ryskamp two driver’s license photos of Valle-Clas. In one, she wears glasses, has bangs and uses the name Gloria LopezClas. In the other, she has her hair pulled back, no glasses and calls herself Nereida Valle. The photos, Bell said, were taken a day apart.
“This is a crime against every taxpayer in America,” she said. “Mrs. Valle-Clas was someone who had assets and the means to help herself. Despite that, she took advantage of society.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wpxi.com ...
I wonder how many times she voted for ObaMao . . .
Another recently-released slave.
Tip of the iceberg.
I thought this was about Aunt Zetunni, Obama’s auntie.
two “offical” pieces of ID...
twice...at the very fewest!
How many billions have the Obama’s wasted on frivolous travel and fabulous vacations?
These two women are pikers compared to politicians. But in today’s climate of free welfare why wouldn’t these two welfare queens feel it was perfectly acceptable to live off welfare with phony names. We have a federal government that celebrates illegal aliens at the expense of legal immigrants and citizens. He hands out a trillion dollars a year in new welfare benefits. You subsidize something you get more of it. Subsidize criminal welfare freeloaders and these are the women you get that elect charlatans like Obama.
Throw the book at her to discourage others to follow her example.
Lots more.
His attorney Jonathan Friedman said a sentence of less than a year may help persuade an immigration judge to allow Gonzalez, who is in the country legally, to remain in the United States after he completes his prison term.
The sophisticated scheme began in 2003 when Valle-Clas persuaded the Broward County Housing Authority to give her monthly checks to live in two homes she owned in North Lauderdale. Later, by again lying about her marital status, her bank accounts and her ownership of businesses, including a printing company, she got the Boca Raton Housing Authority to pay her rent to live in the Loxahatchee, Fla., home, according to court documents.
The beauty of having two Social Security numbers is that Valle-Clas could use one to cry poverty and the other to persuade banks she was a good credit risk, said prosecutor Carolyn Bell. Valle-Clas got a $136,000 loan to build the house in Loxahatchee. On the mortgage application, she reported having $37,000 in the bank and earning $4,800-a-month.
“On one hand she said she had no money and was destitute and on the other hand she was applying for loans for tens of thousands of dollars,” Bell said.
She was able to pull off the scams mainly by lying about her marital status, bank accounts, and business ownership. She claimed to own a printing company that apparently never existed.
From at least December 2003 to January 2013, she used the SSN for “Nereida Valle” to obtain almost $500,000 in federal housing, social security, food, cash, and medical benefits from HUD, SSA, USDA and HHS. At the same time, she used the SSN for “Gloria Lopes Clas” to obtain mortgage loans and buy real estate in both Broward and Palm Beach Counties. As “Gloria Clas,” she sold two Broward properties for a profit of over $200,000. She also purchased over an acre of property in Loxahatchee on which she built an approximately 2,700 square foot residence. After the residence was built, she received a $200,000 HELOC collateralized by the property, but defaulted on it owing over $150,000. At various times, her husband, Gonzalez, assisted her in obtaining housing benefits.
Valle-Clas, who formally changed her name from “Nereida Valle” to “Gloria Nereida Valle-Clas” in 2003, used approximately 12 aliases in perpetrating the scheme, most of which were variations on “Nereida Valle” and “Gloria Lopes Clas.”
http://www.justice.gov/usao/fls/PressReleases/140410-02.html
This has been going on for a long time. There is a great murder mystery set in the 1940s UK that revolves around an attorney who mortgaged the same farm twice during the 1930s, using two different sets of deeds, one of which he created in his office. As long as everything is routine paperwork, nobody looks twice.
She just got caught.
This goes on at a less successful level throughout the ‘hood.
Hmmmm... Who else do we know of with "official ID" that may very well be fraudulent?
Things that make you go Hmmmm...
Latin Americans have two last names, ie, Gonzalez y Suarez, They could use either and be legal.
That judge's sentence is WEAK!!! 4.5 years for that for $377,000 of fraud?
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