Massachusetts Man Guilty Of Passport Fraud

CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE ? Gideon Kweku Ansong, 45, of Grafton, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty this morning to committing the offense of passport fraud. Ansong was indicted in U.S. District Court in July of 2007, after agents of the U.S. State Department?s Diplomatic Security Service uncovered the fraud at the National Passport Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Ansong, a citizen of the Republic of Ghana, pleaded guilty to willfully and knowingly making false statements to the State Department in a passport application in order to fraudulently obtain a United States passport.

In September of 2004, Ansong submitted an application in which he claimed that he was born in Southbridge, Massachusetts. Ansong?s sentencing hearing was set by U.S. District Court Judge Paul Barbadoro for February 26, 2008 at 11:30 A.M.. U.S. Attorney Colantuono stated: ?This is a matter of grave concern. We will do everything possible to make certain that passports are not issued to persons who misrepresent their citizenship or falsify passport applications. Anyone who submits false information or fraudulently poses as a citizen to obtain a United States passport will be prosecuted.?

This case resulted from an ongoing initiative, known as ?Operation Checkmate,? to identify false passport applications that are submitted for adjudication to the National Passport Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The National Passport Center processes and adjudicates approximately five million applications each year. Operation Checkmate is a joint initiative of the U.S. Attorney?s Office for the District of New Hampshire, the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service, the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alfred Rubega is prosecuting this case