NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors arrested a 51-year-old Dominican national who allegedly stole the identity of a U.S. citizen and used it for nearly two decades to fraudulently collect approximately $800,000 in federal benefits, including Social Security disability payments, SNAP, Medicare, and unemployment funds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced.

Veronica Yaraset Molina, who has been unlawfully present in the United States since at least approximately 2000, was presented before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang after her arrest. “For nearly two decades, Veronica Yaraset Molina allegedly stole the identity of an American citizen and used it to loot federal benefit programs of nearly $800,000 in taxpayer funds,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “This Office will pursue those who defraud federal benefit programs.”

The complaint alleges Molina repeatedly used the stolen identity of a U.S. citizen, identified as Victim-1, to apply for and receive benefits across multiple federal programs. She also used the stolen identity to obtain a U.S. passport, which she used to re-enter the United States from the Dominican Republic on several occasions. The identity theft had direct consequences for the real citizen: Victim-1 was unable to receive Federal Emergency Management Agency benefits in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017.

“This kind of calculated fraud is not a victimless crime; it drains taxpayer resources, corrupts vital safety net programs, and inflicts lasting damage on innocent victims who are denied the assistance they need when disaster strikes,” said HSI Special Agent in Charge Pete Gizas. “HSI New York, as a leading member of the Homeland Security Task Force New York, is fully committed to relentlessly pursuing fraudsters who exploit our systems and our communities, and we will continue to work side-by-side with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners to identify, dismantle, and bring to justice anyone who engages in this kind of predatory conduct.”

Diplomatic Security Service New York Field Office Special Agent in Charge Brian Wood said the passport fraud fell squarely within DSS’s mandate. “Molina’s alleged use of a fraudulently obtained U.S. passport to repeatedly enter this country is exactly the kind of threat DSS is uniquely positioned to investigate, and we are proud to have worked alongside our law enforcement partners to bring this case to light,” Wood said.

SSA Office of Inspector General Special Agent in Charge Amy Connelly said Molina is accused of fraudulently obtaining approximately $120,000 in Social Security disability benefits alone. “We remain steadfast in our mission to safeguard the integrity of Social Security programs and will continue to aggressively pursue those who exploit vulnerable systems through fraud, identity theft, and other criminal conduct,” Connelly said.

Molina faces four counts of theft of government funds under 18 U.S.C. § 641, each carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; healthcare fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1347, carrying a maximum of 10 years; passport fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1543, carrying a maximum of 10 years; and aggravated identity theft under 18 U.S.C. § 1028A, which carries a mandatory minimum of two years to run consecutively to any other sentence. The case, handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas D. Pavlis in the office’s General Crimes Unit, falls under the Department of Justice’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, created on April 7 to support President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance. Molina is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.