PORTLAND (AP) — A 52- year- old Portland man has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for stealing another man’s identity and fraudulently obtaining nearly $200,000 of government benefits, including financial assistance for housing, health care, food and school.
Besouro Abdul Zagon was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Portland. He was also ordered to pay $198,000 in restitution.
Prosecutors said Zagon came to the U.S. in the mid- 1980s from his native Antigua, where he was born Donald Benjamin. In the mid-1980s, he assumed the victim’s identity in Massachusetts and used it to fraudulently obtain government benefits.
At Wednesday’s sentencing, the victim told the judge that Zagon’s use of his identity led to his losing his business, his home and his driver’s license for violations he didn’t commit.
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