2002-07-24 -- Turner, Andrea -- Indictment -- News Release

Social Security Employee and Associate Indicted for Processing and Selling ID Cards to Illigal Aliens

NEWARK - A federal grand jury today indicted a Social Security Administration employee and another individual for conspiring to transfer social security cards that had been produced without lawful authority, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

According to the criminal complaint previously filed in the case, defendant Andrea Turner, 39, of Linden, was employed as a service representative at the Social Security office in Elizabeth. In April, SSA investigators determined that Turner improperly had processed more than 200 social-security-card applications for people who were neither United States citizens nor legal aliens. Investigation revealed that the alien status information that Turner had listed on the applications was invalid, and that many of the cards were sent to the same address.

On April 23, a Postal Inspector with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service delivered five of the cards in question to an address in Elizabeth. According to the complaint, defendant Victor Pacheco, 44, of Elizabeth, personally received and signed for the cards at that address. During questioning by law enforcement officers, Pacheco admitted that he previously had received more than 50 social security cards at that address and other addresses and that he had sold the cards for a fee, according to the criminal complaint.

Turner also provided a statement to law enforcement officers, according to the complaint. She admitted that at the request of Pacheco, she had processed hundreds of social security cards based on invalid alien status information. She further stated that Pacheco paid her to do so, according to the complaint.

Turner appeared before a U.S. Magistrate Judge on April 26, the day of her arrest. Pacheco appeared in court on May 3, also the day of his arrest on the criminal complaint. Both have since been released on bail.

The defendants will likely be arraigned on the Indictment in the coming weeks.

The criminal charge alleged in the Indictment - conspiring to transfer identification documents produced without lawful authority - carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Upon a conviction, the sentencing judge would determine the actual sentence based upon U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, a formula that takes into account the severity and characteristics of the offense and the defendants' criminal history, if any. Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Under the Sentencing Guidelines, defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.

Christie credited Special Agents of the Social Security Administration, Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Jane M. Hughes, Assistant Special Agent In Charge, for their handling of the case; and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Postal Inspector in Charge Kevin Burke.

The Government is represented in the case by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Boxer of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

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Defense Counsel:

Turner: Jack Venturi, Esq. New Brunswick

Pacheco: Richard Zeitler, Esq. Iselin