POCATELLO — A man who has spent decades living under the identity of a Los Angeles boy killed in a 1977 drive-by shooting was sentenced to five years in federal prison, but authorities still don’t know who he actually is.

U.S. District Judge David C. Nye recently sentenced the man to 61 months in prison and ordered him to pay nearly $284,000 in restitution, U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis announced in a news release Tuesday.

“Taxpayer funds are precious resources, and our office will fight to vigorously protect such funds,” Davis said. “This sentence should send a strong message that stealing taxpayer funds and craven identity theft will be met with a thorough federal investigation, and a stiff sentence.”

A federal jury sitting in Pocatello convicted the man in May following a three-day trial on charges of wire fraud, theft of government funds and aggravated identity theft.

Because his true identity has never been established, he appears in court records under the acronym FNU LNU — First Name Unknown, Last Name Unknown — a designation used by law enforcement when a person’s identity cannot be verified.

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, the man assumed the identity of Carlos Ramon Obregon, who was born in Los Angeles in 1963 and shot to death there in 1977 at age 14 during a drive-by shooting. Obregon was buried at a Los Angeles cemetery that same year.

Obregon’s mother testified at trial that her son died in 1977, that the defendant is not her son and that she does not know him, according to the release.

The man began building his case around Obregon’s identity in 2000, when he applied for a replacement Social Security card using Obregon’s Social Security number, date of birth and parents’ names, court records show. He went on to obtain Idaho state identification cards in 2002, 2010 and 2014 using Obregon’s identity, and obtained an Idaho Star Card in 2022 by again submitting Obregon’s birth certificate as proof of identity and lawful presence in the country, according to the release.

He also obtained a U.S. passport under Obregon’s name in 2012 and traveled to Mexico on it multiple times, the release states. A 2024 attempt to renew the passport was unsuccessful.

Over roughly 25 years, the man used Obregon’s identity to collect roughly $284,000 in government benefits across multiple federal and state programs, according to the release.

That included about $177,000 in Supplemental Security Income benefits, $91,000 in Medicaid benefits, $12,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and $3,200 in COVID-19 Economic Impact Payments.

Several federal officials tied to the investigation weighed in on the sentencing.

Jonathan P. Kazmar, special agent in charge of the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service San Francisco Field Office, said the case underscored the real harm caused by people who exploit the identities of the deceased.

“In this case, the defendant assumed the identity of a deceased American teenager and used it for years to commit serious fraud,” Kazmar said. “DSS will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to protect the integrity of U.S. travel and identity documents and to seek justice for victims of identity theft.”

Christian Assaad, special agent in charge of the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General for the Denver/San Francisco Field Division, said the fraud diverted resources from people who need them.

“This defendant repeatedly used a deceased individual’s identity to unlawfully obtain over $177,000 in SSI benefits for personal gain, diverting critical resources from people who genuinely need them to meet their basic needs,” Assaad said.

USDA Inspector General John Walk called the case emblematic of gaps in federal fraud prevention.

“This ‘unknown man’ used the stolen identity of a child who died in 1977 to successfully obtain government benefits across numerous programs for 25 years beginning decades after the child’s death,” Walk said. “Something is broken. This underscores the importance of strengthening fraud prevention measures like upfront identity verification and data analytics to stop the fraud before it happens.”

The case was investigated cooperatively by the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General and the Idaho Transportation Department, according to the release. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean Mazorol and Brittney Campbell prosecuted the case.

The man has been held at the Cassia County Jail in Burley since his arrest there in August 2025.