This is quite a story — a United Airlines flight attendant has been arrested after working for 23 years using the stolen identity of a person who he had never met, who passed away at a young age.
Continue reading: United Airlines Flight Attendant Works For 23 Years With Stolen Identity
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A productive member of society excluded from the United States based on choosing to be born into the wrong nation.
Nice.
I’m not surprised as it was easier to get away with stealing a deceased person’s identity back then before records were digitized. I wonder how they linked Eric Ladd to his real name Ricardo Guedes though.
Why he can't be a productive member of Brazilian society? The man committed fraud, deserves to go to jail and then be deported He's a criminal.
if you have a current US passport, your identity is now digital and it is shared w/ most countries and vice versa.
He got by with what he did because that technology didn't exist for decades.
All it took was for a few red flags to pop up during passport renewal and they ran a search.
With facial recognition technology and digital biometric data being shared throughout most of the world, crimes like this are getting harder and harder to do - and obtaining a passport w/ fraudulent data is a crime.
Staffing shortages everywhere and now UAL is reduced by 1. I'd say give him a pass after some mild penalty and then give him a new identity/us citizenship and any willing airline or employer can grab him back.
In the past, I’ve worked with two employers who discovered employees who were using fake IDs. One was arrested whilst in the office.
True life Don Draper story.
I do feel for this guy. He’s probably been looking over his shoulder his whole life.
He is the most loving and giving person you would ever meet !!!!! I worked with him for 23 years , the best flight attendant ever !!!!!
The United States should be proud for having him as a citizen!
Wow! I hope he's deported immediately, serves his sentence in Brazil and barred from entering the USA permanently!
DB Cooper was most likely a Northwest flight attendant who lived in rural Washington state about an hour south of Seattle and who died in the 1990s. Years after his escapade, large chunks of the cash given to him (identified by the bills' serial numbers) were found near a river adjacent to his jump-out point. It is likely that he recovered little to none of the cash.
What a sad story. I wonder if there is a statute of limitations in these cases.
He did not break any laws in Brazil - or so it seems - and as such there is no sentence to be served there. I suspect that if he ends up being deported, he may no longer be eligible to apply for any visas to enter the US. What a sad story.
True. Reprehensible as his action may have been, I'd rather go after the terrorists of 6/1/21, than people like him. It's a sad story all around.
I am not a lawyer but this was not a one off incident. He was perpetuating the fraud everyday he lived under the stolen identity. He was caught at the time of a crime so I don't think the concept of statue of limitation applies here.
He was an exemplary flight attendant who I had the pleasure of knowing. No one knows his story and the poverty that is in Brazil. People do things out of desperation, and he did what he had to do to survive. He broke the law yes, more than likely be deported, but he was a model “citizen “ in every other way, and was an asset to society!
As much as I expected myself to write something like: 'the law is the law', and 'he should be deported'. I find myself simply unable to hate on this man, in fact I feel sorrow for him. Original fraud notwithstanding, he became an otherwise law-abiding resident, a taxpayer and dedicated a worker for his airline, for 20 years! I can't ignore his one moment of original fraud, but I also can't ignore the following 20 years of upright behavior too! This is a real tough one. In the end, the decision (whatever it is) will suck...
#thirsty much...That was beyond a stretch to try and turn this story into political garbage...
He committed fraud and should pay for it. This makes you wonder how many other unlawful crimes he has committed., I also believe his partner should be investigated as well.
Shame on you Ben Schlappig, don’t you have anything news worthy to report! Like drug trafficking at United Airlines? You must be very desperate, to make up stories about people and you have No respect for a person’s privacy. Shame on you! It just makes you look bad. It shows what a terrible person you are. !
Bollocks!
As a staunch republican and Trump voter , and as someone who gained citizenship going through each individual necessary step for almost 20 years, I am telling you he deserves to stay in this country a zillion times more than many citizen whose sole action is to collect unemployment, disability checks based on some overblown claim, and other forms of government support without actually doing anything at all for this society.
If they send him back hey should refund him the taxes he paid with interest accrued. Obviously law enforcement only goes for low hanging fruits….
This wasn't a one and done crime. He continued to break the law every time he renewed his passport which is how they caught him this time. You have signed a tax return and/or passport application?
There are legal ways to become a US citizen which is what is required to become a flight attendant, a group of employees that is held to an even higher security standard than other American citizens.
He played the game and won for 20+ years. Only he can decide if it was worth it based on whatever punishment he gets. If he is returned to Brazil, he will probably come out in pretty good shape. I doubt if the US government can seize the assets and income he gained while employed by United. He COULD be a rich man in Brazil after 20 years of earnings. But he might be sent to US prison for a while and then expelled. Worth watching this case....
I’d say that defaulting on employee pensions and then getting fat executive parachute bonuses should be deemed a crime. That is STEALING
Instead, it seems fair practice as most airlines and doesn’t get the same treatment from news outlets and blogs as the attention and blame this poor guy is getting
Some of those execs even put their bold face on security videos…
I disagree. There are millions of honest, law abiding hard working ‘citizens’ in this guy’s condition. Some (or most) of whom are probably voters. So, no matter what the opinions -mine, which is of course irrelevant, is he should be pardoned and rehired by UAL- it IS a pretty damn big political issue.
That is one point to be considered, and I am sure that his behavior while in the US will be taken into consideration as this moves through the wheels of justice.
The article doesn’t say what age he was when brought here. But if he was a child and this was his primary life before he turned 18 then I don’t blame him a bit and would give him a pass on this. If his 20 years of crimes only include maintaining his identity again I don’t think this guy belongs in jail. We have spent the last too many years with the people in the highest offices lying every time they open their mouth and have committed so many felony fraud crimes it takes a spread sheet to follow them. Yet this is the guy they want to prosecute…
I have a feeling he knew what he was doing. He even brought his partner over to live using his ‘status’ as an ‘American’. I think if he had been brought over here as a baby, the article would’ve said that. I also feel like his life was spent as a productive member of society, not as a criminal. Otherwise, the article would’ve mentioned that. He will lose his livelihood, all he has earned as a United employee ( 401k, any stock, etc ), and will more than likely be deported, unless we find out he came as a baby and didn’t know what had happened.
I have a feeling that as this case moves through the wheels of justice, testimonials like yours would be beneficial, as it speaks to his motives.
I'm Brazilian and I work in aviation. For starters, no one is fingerprinted as a baby. This guy did this after living in Brazil until his adult age when he was fingerprinted in Brazil with his real name. He knew very well he was committing a crime. And every single time he used what it didn't belong to him, he commited a crime. Not just a crime in the human justice, but a harsh one by stealing an identity of a deceased 4 year old child. I can only imagine how this child's mother felt when she found out. So besides the human justice, he will deal with some divine bad karma for him.
Once again, these people are criminals and not your friends. He wasn't happy with one fraud, he tried to get his partner in as well!
Please ask your doctors to increase your medication dosage. You have too many issues to list here.
Sad. Yes he committed a crime for stealing someone’s identity. But he also sounded like a better person than a lot of US citizens.
Seems like if he committed any other crime then kick him out, if his only crime was the passport id give him a break if he had a clean record and paid his taxes for the past 20 years.
Never, on any blog, have a seen the level of "snarkiness" that some of you people direct toward Lucky. WTF ??? RUDE ! the man writes really good and often great articles. If you don't have anything to bring to the table that's remotely constructive......
I wonder how most people would feel if they had lost their brother in a car accident at 4 only to find out some had “stolen” his identity. I’m sure this man did a great job as a F/A but I find it just creepy and disrespectful to the dead , not to mention how he has benefited financially - Maybe he should have to pay the dead sons mother a “respect “ payment
He stole the ID of someone who had passed away. How do you know what other crimes he committed. I guess you would be happy if someone stole your ID, but didn’t “ harm” anyone. What did he do to merit changing his ID ? Murder, drugs , kidnapping ?
I'm stunned by the severity of the rhetoric.
There are an estimated 10+ million illegal immigrants in the US or up to 3.6% of the population. You don't hear hate against them, mostly compassion.
This guy found a "way" to emigrate and worked for 23 years with UA. Clearly a good worker who just wasn't "quite legal", like 10 million others. But one with a productive life.
Sad. Doesn't make him a rapist or a murderer in my books.
Nothing wrong with the paper trip he probably went out to the graveyard and picked up the ID
Please nobody tell the Biden administration because they will give him backpay and all the government benefits that he can have
Started under Bush laws before Clinton changed them so go find a tree Karen I mean Karl
I have worked w/ illegal immigrants in the US and, while I respect them, they don't work for airlines - which requires special security clearances and the vast majority don't have US passports which have been renewed multiple times using a stolen identity, although there are many illegal immigrants that use stolen identities to open accounts of various types. As a flight attendant, he likely passed through US immigration hundreds if not thousands of times which is very different than the lifestyle of nearly all other illegal immigrants.
This isn't about what you or I or anyone else believes and, except for one person, no one is trashing Lucky because he started the story and I don't see many "hating" on the guy. He just got caught. An airline just happens to be caught in the immigration issue which is, like everything else, divisive. There are laws and none of us should be surprised if someone decides to enforce them. Congress has been trying to fix US immigration for years without success.
The moral of the story is to keep your nose clean or figure out how to stay one step ahead of the law which has better and better tools at their disposal.
Lucky monitored the case of the UA exec which wasn't covered elsewhere and I hope he covers this story as well; it is interesting and he clearly stimulates discussion - which is why he allows replies to his posts.
Well for starters this guy committed:
Illegal immigration (most likely an overstay)
Identity theft
Passport fraud
Illegally obtaining immigration benefits under false pretenses
But hey, he’s a good guy! What if this guy happened to be a terrorist who continued to bypass and defraud the system? Obviously it took a while to figure this guy out but finally they got him.
I say give the guy probation and his job back. He's a productive, tax-paying citizen. The US is better off with him than without him.
If the guy was a terrorist then imprison him and throw away the key. But he's not. He's a productive, tax-paying citizen. If you think he should be treated the same as a terrorist then we have a basic disagreement.
This story highlights two facts that are important to consider in related policy discussions:
1) For many interested immigrants around the world, there is simply no viable path to legally stay in the US. While legal immigration happens all the time, it's reserved for individuals with connections, money, or significant education. Like it or not, such policies bar people like this guy from working in the US.
2) Because illegal immigrants can't properly hold a job without committing identity fraud, many of are trapped doing low-value menial work below their skill level, and not paying income taxes that they otherwise would.
Personally I consider these great reasons to consider making our immigration policies more inclusive. For those of you who'd rather see fewer foreigners around, please at least use this opportunity to understand that illegal immigrants often seem like pests in the shadows of the society because we designed the system to make them that way.
"There are an estimated 10+ million illegal immigrants in the US or up to 3.6% of the population. You don't hear hate against them, mostly compassion."
Where have you been for the last 20 years?
All the Trumpsters in the comments. Of course, the privileged white need to display their superiority.
About time there was a click bait story on here.
I was starting to lose faith.....
No evidence for terrorism. Just a hard working guy. No evidence of credit card abuse. Just a hard working guy. If he was hard core he would have multiple identities and lots of credit cards and wouldn't be in the same job for 23 years, no evidence of that.
Just a hard working guy.....
According to at least two persons here who claim to know this person, he was a good colleague and a kind person. He was wrong from the get in what he did, but his motives were different than those who steal identities with the intent to defraud the victims. He is the only victim of his crime. It's a sad, sad story.
I have worked with him and he is a nice, caring, polite man. I am in shock and very very sad.
Just when I thought that the typical dem voters on the comments couldn't surprise me.. I Guess new year, new level of reality distortion. Impressive.
I'm astonished by the sympathy here. As UA crew for 30 years, the sympathy for this liar is astounding to me. He wasn't all that - I flew with him and wouldn't buy a car from him. I guess that doesn't fit the political narrative. Meanwhile, in the past 2 years UA closed their NRT, HKG and FRA bases and hundreds of legally employed UA crew were separated. These were crew with up to 3 decades of service to UA - an American Company. employed fully within the law, who had no opportunity for even a flippin' green card. Spare me, UA lost hundreds of great employees due to archaic immigration law in the US and yet this guy who cheated the system deserves sympathy.
He "stole" an identity in order to get a job .. which he worked dutifully and capably for many years. The taxes he paid and the pension plan he contributed to - will benefit others. Who was hurt, who was actually injured? No one. He contributed more to society than thousands (millions?) of welfare frauds. He shouldn't be punished. Hard working, honest immigrants should be welcomed to our country.
These are the ‘Criminals’ republicans love to bring up. Worked hard and nobody was hurt. But a young man kills two people and is found not guilty and they cheer him and put him on conservative talk shows.
And this is the guy that you'd gladly hand your completed cc application to...
help me understand how you know that he faithfully and legally paid his taxes.
You do realize that Valjean actually did spend time in prison? Alot of it?
And he changed his behavior in response to mercy shown by a number of people, including a cleric.
This case is quite a bit different than Les Miserables.
Wonder what his credit rating was - this old fraud examiner senses there was probably some banking and financial fraud going on here as well.
How the majority of Americans pay taxes. He worked at United. Assuming he wasn’t getting paid under the table, which is highly unlikely, he’s employer withheld taxes on he’s pay, therefore he paid taxes.
If someone stole my ID after I died why would I care one way or another?
And as far as why he changed it, it seems quite possible it was for the US citizenship benefits...
Yes he stole someone's identity, but he worked a respectable job with one of the biggest employers in the United States, paid taxes and stayed out of trouble. As far as I am concerned his motives were to be a hard working citizen who should he given probation and the ability to apply for residency.
Is it ok to steal someone’s identity as long as you pay taxes? He perpetrated a fraud for 23 years.
He has paid incoming taxes do US government for 23 years. This is the most important point. He didn't harm people. Just worked for UA and helped the Airline to provide services to millions of passengers....
He is not the “only victim” of his crime.
The woman who has learned about her dead child’s identify being stolen is a victim as well. I’m sure this must have been heartbreaking for her.
The guy broke the law and he needs to suffer the consequences, all you bleeding hearts need to think about that. If you want to be a US citizen there’s a process; he didn’t go through that process.
We are a country of laws they must be obeyed
I get that a lot of people say he was a good guy and paid taxes. However, we are a country made of laws. We also allow people to enter this country as long as they follow certain laws and criteria. Unfortunately, many foreigners want the easy way in and skip the hurdles and their place in line. Bottom line is, he stole someone else’s identity and on top of that a US citizen’s identity which is a big no and has the greater punishment (Deportation and lifetime ban from ever entering the US).
“He CoMmitTed a CriME EverYTimE he RenewEd hiS pAsspOrt.” That’s some peoples big takeaway?! This is America, the land want was stolen & built up by people that looked like me whilst being considered 3/5’s of a human. This is simply the American dream being fulfilled to me. From nothing to something.
you do realize that YOU tell your employer how much money to withhold from your paycheck and YOU file your own taxes? Your company simply does what you tell them to do in response to your stated obligations to the government.
Having taxes of any amount withheld from your paycheck does not translate into paying the proper amount of taxes by the time the tax year is closed.
We simply DO NOT know if he properly paid the amount of taxes he should have and it is incorrect to say he should be allowed to stay because he must have paid taxes.
btw, illegal immigrants of all kinds pay taxes including sales tax but that does not give the legal right to access services nor does it justify breaking any laws.
Correlation does not imply causation. Airlines close and open bases all the time.
He did break the law, but I think that his ultimate goal was not to become a US citizen, so much as he wanted the means to live in the US, and for that, a green card would have sufficed. US citizenship might not have been his initial motivation, but the means to an end.
It is not legal to do so, but it's an interesting twist - most cases of identity theft are meant to defraud the victim, and in this case, he is the only victim of his crime.
That's my take as well, but he committed a federal crime, and that will make it hard to reconcile justice and fairness.
The mother lost her son at a young age. Only to find out that a fraud had stolen her memory for monetary gain. She is a victim. He gained access to a security and safety sensitive occupation under fraudulent means. We were all lucky. This time.
I was divorced about 30 years ago ( I married very young). I’ve moved four times since then. I haven’t seen nor heard from my ex in all that time, I don’t know where she lives, what her last name is (someone told me she remarried) I really don’t know if she is still alive although I certainly hope she is. Both of us had jobs that required positive ID verification and fingerprinting. Suddenly this year I have begun to receive tons of mail addressed to her at my current address. My present wife, of 27 years, thinks it’s pretty funny. Thinking about this and the FA in this article makes me think we are giving high tech and big government way too much credit. I used to fear they knew too much about us, that they tracked our every move, that Amazon knew what I wanted before I did. Maybe artificial intelligence is more artificial than intelligent.
You think that he withheld all taxes on his UA paychecks for 20 years? He obviously paid taxes on his salary or he would have been busted ages ago. Use your brain.
That’s just it….he’s NOT a citizen. He may have paid taxes but, he is STILL an illegal alien.
I do not begrudge him for the method he choose to become a citizen. Please give him my best wishes and I wish him good fortune and and good luck in the future.
Stacy bee, Many years a ship called the Mayflower drops anchor off the coast of what White Europeans at that time call the New World. Two native Americans are watching and one says to the other, “ immigrants my ***. Those are illegal immigrants.”
I know this person I flow with him for 9 years to he Yes indeed he’s very kind person very easy going and very knows in our contract and more and willing to help and stand by you if you are in trouble very supportive person I flew with him many times I kuwait Dubai Amsterdam Brussels . He’s very talented in computer and Andre his belts 5 languages qualification he can write all 5 languages and speak them well : Portuguese/Dutch/ German/ Spanish and last one which I helped tutoring him until got it Arabic ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
By all accounts other than the original crime he led a good life. Worked hard and did a good job. To a certain extent I feel for him.
I agree completely with you. Is a crime what he did. This is not fair. He is not a honest person. Has to be deported back to Brasil.
Please let’s just stick to the facts:
The man has a Brazilian name and was finger printed in Brazil, for that to have had happened he had to be 18 and getting his id card down there, so he was NOT brought here, he came here as an adult.
The man worked 23 years as a flight attendant?, for that he should have been at least 21 if not more. Actually he was 26.
“The man sponsored his partner to get a green card under his stollen identity.”
Should I say more?
Oh, let’s not forget that this exemplary citizen, who was such a nice guy, paid his taxes, bought a house in Houston and now due to the unfairness the United States of America towards his false identity is loosing everything.
Oh the tragedy! How things like this happens to such good and honest people.
he was not and is not a citizen- unfortunately, he should be deported for committing a federal crime.
he was caught while committing the crime- what statue of limitations would apply to his fraudulent application to renew a fraudulent passport(?)
Love Eric. Great human being, very kind, a hard worker and great to the passengers. I flew with him for 10years. I feel so bad for him. Let him stay. Give him his citizenship. He’s a good American.
I’m a Republican and I love Eric. I think he deserves to be an American citizen. He’s an amazing, super intelligent and kind man.
Apart from stealing an identity, what other jobs did he lie to get before United? When he applied to United, how thorough was the ‘tracing’ by HR and how did his lies, false declarations go undetected? Usually there has to be unbroken time and if it is broken how does the applicant account for it? The Employer has to bear responsibility for him slipping through. He must be a very good Actor in life!
You can donate organs after you pass, why not donate your privilege to someone in need? 😛
I agree with all of the above positive comments. Drop the charges, or put him on probation. Maybe assign him some additional civic duties, let him apply for citizenship, Issue him a new passport, and let him continue to be productive in this country.
I say, give him a fine and regulate his papers.
He should be let go for good behavior.
If he was a good flight attendant, let him finish his career; his hard work deserves a pension like anybody else. I hope Biden gives him leniency since trump pardoned over 19 felony convicted criminals behind bars, charged with money fraud and thereby hurting people and the country….and ….trump put them back in office !!
I say: go after those criminals who should have never left their jail !!
I share in the same sentiments as most here. He's served our country well and earned his keep and most certainly lived a healthy life. I would like to see him stay, give him his job back and allow some probation at best. We people taking advantage of our system and doing far worse things that they get away with. He deserves to be given an opportunity rather to ship him off to a country he's forgotten. Truly makes me sick
yes, on all accounts. I'm hopeful he gets his pension from United. How can we help his cause? There are far worse ppl that do horrible things and the system does NOTHING
There was no threat to anyone. He had no ill intent, but to do what he loved. He paved his own way without a handout. Good grief! You must have a great no frills life.
yes, i agree. Unfortunately, I'm guessing our government will NOT pay him a damn thing. There are people in our society who take up more space because we allow it. He deserves to stay in USA
The moment he used another person decedent's he became a criminal and his over stayed on his original viza was another crime and in the 23 years flying in and out of the united states how many other crimes did he committed murder drug trafficking who really nose his extensive criminal enterprise