A federal grand jury has indicted Carlos Felipe Jaramillo Grajales, a 55-year-old resident of Jacksonville, on charges related to identity theft and voter fraud. The indictment alleges that Grajales, a Colombian citizen, assumed the identity of a U.S. citizen to obtain government documents and participate in a federal election.
According to the United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe, Grajales is accused of making false statements in an application for a U.S. passport and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to secure a Florida driver license on three separate occasions. He also allegedly claimed that a Social Security number had been assigned to him four times, declared himself a U.S. citizen to vote in an election, voted as an alien in the November 2020 general election, and committed aggravated identity theft across nine counts.
If convicted, Grajales faces significant penalties: up to 10 years in prison for passport fraud, five years for each false claim of citizenship and fraudulent use of a Social Security number, one year for voting by an alien, and mandatory two-year sentences for each count of aggravated identity theft served consecutively with other sentences.
The indictment states that Grajales used another individual’s name, date of birth, and Social Security number not only when applying for the passport but also when obtaining state identification and voting.
“An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty,” said the office of United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe.
The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Social Security Administration – Office of the Inspector General. Assistant United States Attorney Arnold B. Corsmeier will prosecute the case.
