A 69-year-old Bradenton woman was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for passport fraud, Social Security fraud, wire fraud and theft of government funds, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.
The woman, listed as Jane Doe in the court filings but going by the identity of Rosario Alaniz, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland to pay $184,904.75 in restitution.
Alaniz pleaded guilty in December 2025, according to the DOJ news release.
The court recommended confinement at a halfway house or a low-security facility as close to Tampa as possible, according to court records.
Following her sentence, Alaniz is to be under supervised release for 3 years.
The news release states that Alaniz fraudulently obtained a United States passport.
Using a fake identity, Alaniz applied and received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits from the Department of Agriculture and disability insurance benefits from the Social Security Administration.
Prosecutors said Alaniz failed to disclose her actual employment status, thus fraudulently obtaining payments that she should not have received or were greater than the amount authorized.
According to the indictment filed in the United States District Court of the Middle District of Florida in Tampa, Alaniz is alleged to have submitted fraudulent applications for SNAP benefits through the Florida Department of Children and Families on-line portal starting around August 2020.
For the next five years, through August 2025, Alaniz submitted the applications on-line, through fax or in-person, according to the indictment. Alaniz fraudulently obtained and expended SNAP benefits totaling approximately $30,223.65, according to the indictment.
In December 2025, during a 26-minute hearing, Alaniz entered a plea of guilty to nine charges, according to court documents.
A sentencing memorandum stated that Alaniz has a criminal history and a history of using aliases dating back to the 1980s.
It was sometime in the 1980s that she applied for a U.S. Social Security number using the name Rosario Alaniz and went on to establish a life with that identity, according to the memorandum.
Then, in August 2020, she applied for a passport listing her parents as Juan Alaniz and Josefina Ramirez.
“She did this knowing those were not her parents and this was not her identity,” the memorandum states. “Mr. Alaniz and Ms. Ramirez had a child named Rosario Alaniz that died at five months of age.”
Investigators interviewed the siblings of the deceased baby, and none recognized the woman claiming to be Alaniz, although the siblings did know they had a sister who died at a young age.
Alaniz used a birth certificate she’d obtained a month prior to her passport application and her driver’s license for the passport application. She successfully obtained her passport.
It wasn’t until Alaniz’s daughter applied for a passport that authorities realized there was an issue and began to investigate, according to the court document.
Investigators soon realized Alaniz obtained several government benefits she was not entitled to based on her false name.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), the Social Security Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The prosecutor on the case was Assistant United States Attorney Ilyssa M. Spergel, and the forfeiture is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Suzanne C. Nebesky, according to the release.
Gabriela Szymanowska covers the criminal justice, courts and legal system for the Herald-Tribune. Reach out with a news tip to gszymanowska@gannett.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Bradenton woman gets 15 months in federal prison for passport fraud
Reporting by Gabriela Szymanowska, Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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