Hoboken man admits faking Cuban identity to get U.S. citizenship and passport

A Hoboken man who had been deported to the Dominican Republic pleaded guilty to using a false Cuban identity to become a U.S. citizen and get a U.S. passport, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said Friday.

Miguel Dario Bautista Jimenez, 42, also known as “Carlos Chapman Hernandez” and “Carlos Hernandez,” pleaded guilty Oct. 14 before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler in Newark federal court to a two-count indictment charging unlawful procurement of naturalization and passport fraud, according to the office’s release. A federal grand jury returned the indictment on April 20, court records show.

According to the release, Bautista, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, was removed from the United States in or around 2013 after a criminal conviction in New York for an aggravated felony. The release says he re-entered the country using a false identity in or around June 2014.

Bautista then applied for legal permanent residence and naturalization claiming to be “Carlos Chapman Hernandez,” a person born in Cuba, and falsely stated that he had never been convicted of a crime, never been removed from the United States and never been to prison, the release says. Prosecutors said he used the false identity to obtain U.S. citizenship documents through naturalization, including a U.S. passport.

Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greatest, according to the release. It did not give a sentencing date.

U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer credited Homeland Security Investigations in Newark, the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General, the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and the FBI with the investigation, the release says. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Priscilla Gabela and Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine M. Romano are prosecuting the case. Bautista is represented by attorney Carlos Diaz-Cobo, according to the release.