United Flight Attendant Labored Less than a False Identity for 23 Yrs

• Veteran flight attendant Ricardo Guedes labored for United Airways utilizing a fake title for 23 many years.
• The Brazilian guy stole the identification of William Ladd, who died in a automobile crash at age 4 in the 1970s.
• Investigators matched two sets of fingerprints provided by Guedes to Brazil’s federal government and United.

A veteran flight attendant stole the id of a dead American child and utilized the bogus title to function for United Airways for 23 decades, a federal court document said.

In a grievance submitted in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston, investigators from the Diplomatic Protection Company accused Ricardo Cesar Guedes, a Brazilian nationwide, of id theft of William Ericson Ladd, a deceased American. The grievance said Guedes went by Eric Ladd and utilised the stolen identification to illegally operate for United Airlines.

Ladd was born in 1974 and died in a auto crash in 1979 in Washington point out, a thirty day period just before his fifth birthday, the grievance stated. Ladd’s mother, Debra Lynn Hays, confirmed the boy’s delivery and dying to DSS distinctive brokers in July 2021.

Investigators allege that Guedes was born in São Paulo in 1972 but assumed Ladd’s identification in 1998 when he efficiently utilized for a US passport employing Ladd’s title. Considering that then, Guedes has renewed his passport six occasions. In December 2020, the State Section flagged the software for “many fraud indicators.”

A legal investigation was introduced into Guedes, and agents ended up equipped to trace his identification back to Brazil with fingerprints he submitted for his Brazilian national id doc in the 1990s, the grievance mentioned. Court documents mentioned the complex team at Customs and Border Protection in comparison people fingerprints to the established Guedes submitted for his background examine for work with United and confirmed that they matched.

United confirmed to Insider that Guedes was no extended with the enterprise.

“United has a comprehensive verification approach for new staff that complies with federal authorized requirements,” the carrier mentioned.

Guedes has been billed with giving a untrue statement in a passport software, falsely impersonating a US citizen, and moving into an airport protected region beneath untrue pretenses, the criticism claimed.

The 3rd charge was incorporated due to the fact Guedes’ job as a flight attendant permitted him to use the expedited “recognised crewmember” TSA lane and bypass most safety checks.

The grievance stated investigators and Transportation Safety Administration brokers observed Guedes applying the recognised-crewmember line at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport to accessibility the protected space of the airport, which was part of the terminal that essential a security check out to enter. DSS brokers arrested Guedes at the airport just after observing him board a flight even though keeping a cell phone that go through “Eric’s Apple iphone” on the display.

An legal professional representing Guedes declined to comment on the scenario.