Department of Justice

NEW ORLEANS – U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that on March 22, 2024, a federal grand jury indicted Brett Gabriel (“Gabriel”), 31, of Thibodaux, Louisiana, for aggravated identity theft, providing a false statement during the acquisition of a firearm, and providing a false statement to an agency of the United States.

According to court documents, Gabriel used stolen identity information to purchase a firearm and to obtain fraudulent paycheck protection program loan proceeds administered by the federal government.

The maximum penalty for the firearm offense is ten years imprisonment and/or a fine of $250,000 or the greater of twice the gross gain to the defendant or twice the gross loss to the victim, and up to three years of supervised release. The maximum penalty for the false statement offense is five years imprisonment and/or a fine of $250,000 or the greater of twice the gross gain to the defendant or twice the gross loss to the victim, and up to three years of supervised release. As to these two offenses, Gabriel also faces payment of a mandatory special assessment fee of one hundred dollars. For the aggravated identity offense, the penalty is a mandatory minimum sentence of two years of imprisonment, to run consecutively to any other term of imprisonment imposed.

U.S. Attorney Evans reiterated that the indictment is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department of Justice launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities and measuring the results.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The task force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form

U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office in investigating this matter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard R. Pickens, II of the Financial Crimes Unit is in charge of the prosecution.

Contact
Shane M. Jones
Public Information Officer
United States Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Louisiana
United States Department of Justice

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