A Worcester resident has been federally indicted for allegedly using stolen identities, including that of a deceased person, to obtain $137,100 in Emergency Rental Assistance funds tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Dominican national living in Worcester was indicted after authorities say he used other people’s identities to apply for and collect emergency rental assistance intended for households hit by the pandemic. Federal prosecutors allege the scheme ran from October 2021 through August 2022 and resulted in $137,100 in funds being diverted. The indictment names the defendant as Felix Mercedes-Castillo, 35.
Mercedes-Castillo faces five counts of theft of government money and three counts of aggravated identity theft, according to court papers. He is already serving a state prison sentence on unrelated matters and will be brought before a federal judge in Worcester at a later date. The filings say the alleged fraud involved submitting applications that misrepresented who was a landlord and who was a tenant.
In the ERAP applications, prosecutors allege, Mercedes-Castillo presented other people as both landlords and tenants and claimed those applicants needed rental assistance. Applications included copies of identifying documents such as social security cards, the indictment says. In at least one instance, the alleged “landlord” used in the application had been deceased for more than a year.
As a result of those misrepresentations, ERAP checks were reportedly issued in the applicants’ names, intercepted in the mail and then collected by Mercedes-Castillo, who is accused of keeping the proceeds. ERAP, the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, was created by Congress in 2021 to help eligible low-income households cover rent and arrears caused by COVID-related hardship. Prosecutors say this case targeted that relief process for personal gain.
The potential penalties are significant. Theft of government money carries a maximum prison term of 10 years, up to three years of supervised release and fines up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater, along with forfeiture and restitution. Aggravated identity theft has a mandatory two-year prison term that must be served consecutively to any other sentence, plus one year of supervised release and fines up to $250,000.
Sentencing, if a conviction occurs, will be guided by the federal statutes and the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, with the judge weighing factors such as loss amount and role in the scheme. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan D. O’Shea of the Worcester Branch Office is listed as the prosecutor handling the federal case. The announcement of the indictment named several law enforcement leaders involved in the investigation.
Those officials include United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England; and Massachusetts Inspector General Jeffrey S. Shapiro. Their offices worked together to trace the alleged misuse of pandemic relief dollars. Investigations like this tend to involve coordination across federal, state and local agencies.
The department points out that combating pandemic-related fraud has been a priority since 2021 when the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force on May 17, 2021. The task force was created to marshal DOJ resources and partner with other agencies to detect, investigate and prosecute fraud tied to relief programs. It focuses on the most culpable actors and helps programs harden controls against similar schemes.
Prosecutors emphasize that the investigation aims to protect limited relief dollars intended for vulnerable people and to hold accountable those who exploit the system. Anyone with relevant information about alleged pandemic-related fraud can contact law enforcement channels established for reporting such crimes. The case against Mercedes-Castillo is ongoing and will proceed through the federal court system in Worcester.
