An 86-year-old man was found guilty by a US district court for multiple charges after he took on the identity of his deceased brother to collect retirement benefits and travel out of the country.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office District of Maine, Napoleon Gonzales, of Etna, Maine, faces up to 50 years in prison for two counts of Social Security fraud, two counts of passport fraud, identity theft, and mail fraud charges after he was found guilty on Friday, Aug. 18, following a two-day trial on the cases before Judge John A. Woodcock in US District Court in Bangor.

United States Attorney’s Office District of Maine said that according to court records, Gonzales started using the identity of his dead brother, Guillermo Gonzales, in the 1960s, to get multiple passports, and collect retirement  benefits under his sibling’s name.

Guillermo Gonzales reportedly died as an infant in 1939.

It said that Gonzales obtained a passport bearing his brother’s name in 2017 which he used to travel to Canada in July 2018.

He also filed applications for Social Security retirement benefits under his name in 1999, and in his brother’s name in 2001.

The US Attorney’s Office District of Maine said that Gonzales collected retirement benefits under both identities until March 2020, when investigators requested the suspension of benefits being paid to Guillermo Gonzalez pending investigation.

It added that Napoleon Gonzales then mailed a letter to the Social Security Administration (SSA), under the name of Guillermo Gonzalez and the Social Security number assigned to that identity, asking for an explanation for the suspension.

Gonzales requested for a prompt reply from the SSA, claiming that he was locked in his apartment, unable to drive and was dependent on neighbors to obtain food and other items due to Covid-19 pandemic.

He also obtained Maine state identification cards under both his and his brother’s names.

The US Attorney’s Office said that in record statements, Gonzales claimed that he took on the identity of his dead brother at the direction of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and that he was legally allowed to use both identities.

Gonzales faces up to five years in prison for the Social Security fraud charges; up to 10 years on passport fraud charges; up to 15 years on identity theft; and up to 20 years on the mail fraud charges. He also faces up to $250,000 fine and up to three years of supervised release on all charges.

He will be sentenced after the completion of a pre-sentence investigation report by the US Probation Office, the US Attorney’s Office District of Maine said.

The case was investigated by Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General, the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, and the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles Division of Enforcement, Anti-theft and Regulations, it added.