OCALA, Florida – ICE’s Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) Orlando workplace seized an plane Dec. 18, 2020, as a part of an investigation stemming from a fraudulent passport software that additionally uncovered a prison fugitive who had been on the run for 35 years.
Howard D. Farley, Jr., 72, of Weirsdale and Duc Hanh Thi Vu, 56, of Weirsdale, have been indicted for passport fraud. Farley was additionally charged with aggravated id theft, Social Safety fraud, possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon and working as a pilot and not using a authentic airman’s certificates. Vu was moreover charged with false statements to a federal company and using a pilot and not using a authentic airman’s certificates. The indictment additionally features a forfeiture allegation to grab the couple’s plane. The HSI Orlando workplace is the lead investigative company for the plane seizure and a part of the workforce for the general investigation.
“This investigation reads like a Hollywood script, with a prison fugitive audacious sufficient to suppose he may get a authorized U.S. passport,” mentioned HSI Tampa performing Deputy Particular Agent in Cost David Pezzutti. “We all the time work diligently to guard the integrity of our authorized worldwide journey paperwork, however this case additionally uncovered a 35-year fugitive.”
If convicted, Farley faces a most penalty of 30 years in federal jail. Vu faces a most penalty of 18 years in federal jail.
Farley was beforehand arrested Dec. 2, 2020, as “John Doe,” after federal brokers obtained an arrest warrant for passport fraud. As soon as Farley was fingerprinted, brokers confirmed that he had been utilizing the id of a deceased individual for greater than 35 years to keep away from apprehension within the District of Nebraska the place, in 1985, he had been indicted as a part of a drug distribution conspiracy. These fees have been dismissed in 2014.
In line with the indictment and different courtroom information, in or round Feb. 2020, Farley and Vu, performing collectively, submitted a passport software utilizing the identify and date of delivery of an toddler who had died in 1955. Farley and Vu did not disclose Farley’s true id within the software. Additionally they included a Social Safety quantity for the sufferer, which Farley had obtained by fraudulent means in 1982.
On the time of his arrest Dec. 2, 2020, authorities executed a search warrant on the couple’s residence, through which brokers recovered a firearm and ammunition inside Farley’s nightstand. Farley was convicted in 1970 of a felony in Nebraska and is prohibited from possessing a firearm or ammunition below federal legislation. Whereas brokers have been on the residence, Vu allegedly made false statements concerning the true id of Farley.
HSI additionally seized an plane positioned on the residence. Whereas the plane was registered to Vu, Farley was the one pilot who operated it. The indictment fees Farley with working as a pilot and not using a authentic airman’s certificates. It additional fees Vu with using Farley as a pilot and not using a authentic airman’s certificates. Farley didn’t have a authentic airman’s certificates as a result of he falsified his id to the Federal Aviation Administration. He additionally did not disclose his felony conviction from Nebraska and his standing as a fugitive from justice. If convicted of those offenses, the plane can be topic to forfeiture by america.
An indictment is merely a proper cost {that a} defendant has dedicated a number of violations of federal prison legislation, and each defendant is presumed harmless except, and till, confirmed responsible.
This case is being investigated by the U.S. Division of State’s Diplomatic Safety Service (DSS), the Division of Transportation – Workplace of Inspector Basic, the Social Safety Administration – Workplace of the Inspector Basic, HSI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Inner Income Service – Prison Investigation, with help from the Marion County Sheriff’s Workplace and the Florida Freeway Patrol. It’s being prosecuted by the Center District Florida U.S. Lawyer Maria Chapa Lopez’s Assistant U.S. Lawyer Michael P. Felicetta.
