TRENTON
- Attorney General Stuart Rabner and Division
of Criminal Justice Director Gregory A.
Paw announced that a Hudson County man has
pleaded guilty to selling fake driver’s
credentials to an undercover investigator.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Rafael Ottenwalder, 50, of West New
York, who used the name “Gordo,”
pleaded guilty yesterday before Superior
Court Judge Peter J. Vazquez in Hudson County
to a charge of second-degree sale of a simulated
New Jersey driver’s license and third-degree
sale of a simulated motor vehicle insurance
identification card.
Ottenwalder
admitted that in May and June of 2005 in
Union City, he knowingly sold a fictitious
New Jersey driver’s license and a
fictitious New Jersey insurance identification
card to an undercover investigator from
the Division of Criminal Justice - Office
of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor. Phony insurance
identification cards sell on the street
for $50 to over $200 each.
“The
sale of fake drivers’ credentials
is a serious law enforcement and public
safety issue because motorists are using
them to circumvent the law and drive without
a license or insurance,” Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor Brown said. “These
cases will remain a high priority for my
office.”
Crimes
of the second degree carry sentences of
up to 10 years in state prison and a criminal
fine of up to $150,000, while crimes of
the third degree carry sentences of up to
five years in prison and a criminal fine
of up to $15,000.
State
Investigators Luis Cruz and Ned Shaw and
Deputy Attorney General Andrew C. Fried
handled the case.
Ottenwalder
is scheduled to appear before Judge Vazquez
on January 19 to be sentenced
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