Illegal stole the identity of an American and lived a full life in the USA for 23 years, changing his passport several times

Veteran flight attendant Ricardo Gedes spent 23 years at United Airlines under an assumed name. The Brazilian stole the identity of William Ladd, who died in a car accident at the age of 4 in the 1970s, reports INSIDER.

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Investigators matched two sets of fingerprints provided by Guedes to the Brazilian government and United.

A federal court record says a veteran steward stole the identity of a dead American child and used a fictitious name to work for United Airlines for 23 years.

In a complaint filed with the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston, investigators from the Foreign Security Service accused Ricardo Cesar Gedes, a Brazilian citizen, of stealing the identity of deceased American William Erickson Ladd. The complaint said Gedes used the stolen data to illegally work for United Airlines.

The complaint states that Ladd was born in 1974 and died in a 1979 car crash in Washington state, a month before his fifth birthday. Ladd's mother, Debra Lynn Hayes, confirmed the birth and death of the boy to DSS special agents in July 2021.

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Investigators claim Gedes was born in Sao Paulo in 1972, but stole Ladd's identity in 1998 when he successfully applied for a US passport using Ladd's name. Since then, Gedes has renewed his passport six times. In December 2020, the Department of State flagged the application for "various indicators of fraud."

The complaint said that a criminal investigation had been launched against Gedes and that agents were able to trace his identity back to Brazil using the fingerprints he provided for his Brazilian national identity document in the 1990s. The court documents say that Customs and Border Protection technicians compared these fingerprints to a kit that Gedes provided to verify his background information when applying for a job at United, and confirmed that they matched.

United has confirmed that Gedes is no longer employed by the company.

“United has a thorough screening process for new employees that meets federal law requirements,” the carrier said.

The complaint says Gedes was accused of providing false information in his passport application, posing as a US citizen, and entering a safe area of ​​the airport under false pretenses.

A third charge was included because Gedes's work as a flight attendant allowed him to use the TSA Fast Track for a "known crew member" and bypass most security checks.

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The complaint says TSA investigators and agents watched as Gedes used a line with known crew members at George W. Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston to access the airport's secured area, which was part of the terminal, which required security checks to enter. DSS agents arrested Gedes at the airport after they saw him board a plane with a phone that said “Eric's iPhone” on the screen.

A lawyer representing Gedes declined to comment on the case.

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