The Man With the Stolen Name

Along with information on visas and travel advisories, the U.S. State Department’s website has a page featuring three mugshots and a mystery.

The pictures portray one man. In the first, a line is shaved into his hair and a small gold hoop juts out of the left ear. That was in style on June 24,1997, the date of the photo. Brown eyes stare forward. Taken seven and 16 years later, the other photos show him with a receding hairline and fuller jowls.

“Do you know this individual?” the State Department asks.

The man is described as 5-feet-8, in his early to mid 40s. He is believed to have arrived in South Florida in the late 1990s. He has a Caribbean accent and could be from Antigua, Barbuda or Jamaica. He “would have disappeared from a community around June of 1997,” the State Department said. He might go by “Chris” or “Richie.”

It reads like a BOLO advisory — “Be On the Lookout” — for a fugitive. But the man is not missing. He is in the custody of U.S. marshals, awaiting sentencing on