42 Years Under a Stolen Identity, Voting All Along: Canadian Citizen Gregory Allan Porter Appears in Tennessee Court on 11 Counts Including Passport Fraud
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee announced that Gregory Allan Porter, also known as “Tony Wayne Ortiz,” 67, of Sevierville in Sevier County, Tennessee, appeared in court on October 30, 2026, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jill E. McCook and pleaded not guilty to an eleven-count indictment. He was detained pending trial, set for January 5, 2027, in U.S. District Court in Knoxville before U.S. District Judge Katherine A. Crytzer.
The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Knoxville on October 21, 2026, charges two counts of false statement in a passport application, one count of aggravated identity theft, three counts of misuse of a passport, one count of false claim of U.S. citizenship, one count of misuse of a social security number, and three counts of voting by an alien.
The indictment alleges that Porter, a Canadian citizen, entered the United States unlawfully in or around 1984 and thereafter assumed the identity of Tony Wayne Ortiz, an American citizen. Since then he lived and worked in the United States under the assumed identity, fraudulently obtaining a birth certificate, a social security number, Tennessee driver's licenses, and United States passports, and voted in numerous state, local, and federal elections under the assumed identity.
If convicted, Porter faces terms of imprisonment ranging from one year to ten years and supervised release ranging from one year to three years; the aggravated identity theft count carries a mandatory two-year term that must be served consecutively to any other term imposed. U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III made the announcement.
The indictment resulted from an investigation by the Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service, with assistance from the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, and the Oxford, Alabama Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Franklin Ammons represents the United States. The office reminded the public that an indictment is only a charge and every person is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国司法部总部大楼（资料图）。美国司法部官方照片，公共领域。 / The U.S. Department of Justice headquarters (file photo). U.S. Department of Justice photo, public domain.
