WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors have charged 18 more noncitizens in North Carolina with voting illegally, the Justice Department announced Thursday. That brings the number charged in the state this year to 30.
All but one of the new defendants are lawful permanent residents. Prosecutors say the exception, a man from Guatemala who lives in Robeson County, is in the country illegally.
Nine of the cases were filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina, five in the Middle District and four in the Western District. The 12 people charged earlier this year were all in the Eastern District.
All 18 are charged with voting while not U.S. citizens. Sixteen of them are also accused of lying about their citizenship to vote. The 2024 general election is at the center of most cases, though prosecutors allege a few defendants voted for years.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said the goal is to stop illegal voting before it happens. “If you’re not an American citizen, you cannot vote in our federal elections,” he said.
Eastern District U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle described the indictments as a message ahead of the 2026 election: “If you vote illegally, we are looking, we will find out, and we will prosecute you.”
Dan Bishop, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District, said the charges put anyone who breaks election laws on notice, including noncitizens who register and vote.
Russ Ferguson, who holds the post in the Western District, noted how close the state’s 2025 municipal elections were. By his count, 14 races came down to two votes and 15 to a single vote, while seven ended in ties.
Reid Davis, who heads the FBI’s Charlotte field office, said any violation erodes trust and dilutes valid votes. Homeland Security Investigations will keep working with its partners to protect confidence in the electoral system, said Mark M. Zito, the agency’s special agent in charge for the Carolinas.
Eastern District
The district’s nine new indictments raise its total to 21. In each case, a grand jury alleged the defendant falsely claimed U.S. citizenship to register and vote in the 2024 general election. All nine face one count of falsely claiming citizenship to vote and one count of voting by an alien.
Selvin Porfidio Gonzalez Escobar, 43, is the Robeson County man prosecutors say is in the country illegally. He registered in 2020, according to prosecutors, and voted in that year’s general election and again in 2024.
Some defendants allegedly voted far longer. Elizabeth Margaret Crudup, 52, a Kenya native in Harnett County, registered in 2008 and is accused of voting in every general election since then. She also allegedly voted in nine primaries, including one this year.
Gregory Eugene Wade’s alleged record goes back further still. The 64-year-old Bermuda native from Wake County registered in 2000 and is accused of voting in 12 general elections through 2024, as well as primaries in 2002 and 2020.
Richard John Reid registered in 2002. Prosecutors say the 62-year-old, a United Kingdom native who lives in New Hanover County, cast ballots in four general elections — 2008, 2012, 2020 and 2024. He is accused of voting in the 2008 and 2012 primaries, too.
Karl Anthony Wilkins, 62, now lives in Fulton County, Georgia. The Jamaica native registered in 2018 and allegedly voted in Wake County in three general elections, from 2020 through 2024, and the 2020 primary.
Four others are accused of voting in the 2024 general election. Amerigo Di Nolfi, 53, an Italy native and British citizen who has since moved to Hampden County, Massachusetts, registered that year and voted in New Hanover County. Patricia Elena Valencia Cardona, 56, a Colombia native from Harnett County, also registered in 2024.
Jacqueline Yvonne Papandreou Brown, 63, registered in 2020. She was born in Singapore, holds British citizenship and lives in Duplin County. Taso Gretes, 58, a Greece native and Canadian citizen in New Hanover County, registered in 2022.
Middle District
Four people in the district were charged by indictment. Each faces two charges: knowingly making a false claim of U.S. citizenship to vote and voting by an alien.
Adrianus Marinus Van Der Staak, a Netherlands national, lives in Seagrove. Saida Adali Hirachete Olivarez, a Mexican national, is from Reidsville.
The other two are Juan Florencio Ramos, a Cuban citizen living in Salisbury, and Phillip Alexander Carter, who was born in Barbados and lives in Winston-Salem.
Yamila Avalos of Concord, an Argentine national, faces a single count of voting by an alien, filed by information.
Western District
In Charlotte, a grand jury indicted three men.
Michael Agah, 74, a Nigerian national from Charlotte, is accused of falsely claiming citizenship on an Authorization to Vote Form and then voting on Nov. 5, 2024. Serge Christian Dupont, 57, a French national who also lives in Charlotte, allegedly made the same false claim on that form on Nov. 5, 2024, and voted the same day.
Luis Alberto DeJesus, 50, took a different route, prosecutors say. The Dominican national from Conover allegedly listed himself as a citizen on an early voting application and voted Oct. 30, 2024.
Edread Ray Stanley, 63, of Charlotte, a national of St. Kitts and Nevis, was charged by bill of information. Prosecutors accuse him of voting on Nov. 5, 2024, knowing he was not a citizen.
Penalties
Falsely claiming citizenship to vote can, on conviction, bring up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. For voting by an alien, the maximum is a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.
The FBI and HSI are investigating. Each district’s U.S. attorney’s office is handling its own prosecutions.
The charges are only accusations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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