French Camp senior pleads guilty to stealing Social Security retirement benefits, faces 10 year prison term

July 31, 2018 | 

A French Camp, California man pled guilty to charges that he illegally collected Social Security payments for over 20 years. Roberto Alvarez-Rivera, 84, a Mexican citizen entered the plea in U.S. Federal Court in Sacramento yesterday. 

According to evidence introduced by the Office of the Inspector General, Social Security Administration, in 1954, Alvarez obtained the birth certificate of his cousin, who was a U.S. citizen, and used it to create a false identity to obtain a Social Security number and residence and employment in the United States. 

More than 40 years later in 1996, Alvarez filed for Social Security retirement benefits under his false identity and collected approximately $221,210 from 1996 to 2017. Alvarez is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller on October 22 and faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.