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For
Immediate Release: |
For
Further Information: |
December
6, 2011
Office
of The Attorney General
-
Paula T. Dow, Attorney General
Division
of Criminal Justice
- Stephen J. Taylor, Director |
Media
Inquiries-
Peter Aseltine
609-292-4791
Citizen Inquiries-
609-292-4925 |
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Forty
People Indicted,
Including Six Motor Vehicle Commission Clerks,
in Illegal Sales of New Jersey Driver’s
Licenses
Investigations by Division of Criminal
Justice, Motor Vehicle Commission and New
Jersey State Police targeted illicit brokering
rings at 5 motor vehicle agencies |
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TRENTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow, Criminal
Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor and Motor
Vehicle Commission (MVC) Chairman and Chief
Administrator Raymond P. Martinez today announced
indictments charging 40 people – including
six former MVC clerks, 21 customers, and 13
brokers and other intermediaries – with
participating in criminal rings that illegally
sold New Jersey digital driver’s licenses
to unauthorized persons at five local motor
vehicle agencies.
According to Director Taylor, the Division
of Criminal Justice obtained six state grand
jury indictments charging all 40 defendants
with conspiracy, official misconduct and computer
criminal activity, all in the second degree,
and third-degree tampering with public records
or information. Many defendants were also
charged with second-degree bribery, and most
of the clerks, brokers and other intermediaries
face multiple counts of each charge. The second-degree
charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years
in prison, and the clerks would face a mandatory
minimum sentence of five years without parole
under New Jersey’s anti-corruption laws.
The defendants allegedly
conspired in schemes in which brokers and
MVC clerks sold New Jersey digital driver’s
licenses to customers who did not have the
required six points of identification. In
some cases, the customers, who are foreign
nationals, did not qualify for a license
because they were in the United States illegally.
In other cases, they lacked sufficient documentation.
The customers paid between $2,500 and $7,000
for a driver’s license or license
renewal, and the MVC clerks and brokers
split the proceeds of the illicit sales.
The indictments were returned
in November but sealed until yesterday because
arrest warrants were pending against defendants.
The indictments stem from cooperative investigations
by the Division of Criminal Justice, Motor
Vehicle Commission and New Jersey State
Police. The cases involve MVC clerks at
the Lodi, East Orange, Edison, Jersey City
and North Bergen motor vehicle agencies.
In the Edison case, a clerk pleaded guilty
prior to being indicted.
“We have zero tolerance
for corrupt motor vehicle clerks, who can
undermine public safety through their access
to personal information and their ability
to issue driver’s licenses,”
said Attorney General Dow. “We know
criminals seek black-market driver’s
licenses to commit identity theft and fraud,
and on 9/11, the terrorists used licenses
from other states to help them carry out
their deadly plots. We will continue to
work with the Motor Vehicle Commission and
New Jersey State Police to maintain maximum
vigilance and aggressively prosecute these
cases.”
“We want to send a
forceful deterrent message to those who
broker illegal sales of driver’s licenses
and to clerks who might be motivated by
greed to sell out the trust placed in them.
They will be subject to lengthy prison terms,”
said Director Taylor. “We urge the
public to report criminals involved in the
fraudulent identification market, who typically
exploit the immigrant community, ripping
off individuals seeking licenses and subjecting
them to serious criminal charges.”
“The NJ MVC and our
team of investigators believe the strict
policies and procedures we have developed
are working to help weed out fraud and abuse,”
said Chairman and Chief Administrator Raymond
P. Martinez. “Our goal is to ensure
that we issue IDs only to those individuals
that are who they say they are; there is
only one record of that person in our system;
and that this decision is based on current,
valid and verified documents.”
“These charges prove
that document fraud in New Jersey leads
to hard time rather than easy money for
the clerks and brokers involved in this
crime. The fact that some people will pay
thousands of dollars to illegally get a
driver’s license shows how important
this document is, and how far we must go
to protect its integrity,” said Colonel
Rick Fuentes, Superintendent of the New
Jersey State Police. “Fraudulent identification
opens the door to terrorists and other criminals
who intend to harm our citizens,”
he added.
In the next few weeks, the
MVC will begin the first phase of the roll-out
of their Facial Recognition program with
a briefing to representatives of the New
Jersey law enforcement community. The program
will use biometric technology to “scrub”
the 17 million digital images in the NJ
MVC database to detect licenses that have
been obtained with fraudulent identities.
The briefing will include presentations
from investigators from other states where
Facial Recognition programs have been successfully
initiated or completed. The briefing will
provide details on how these programs have
been implemented and improved motor vehicle
agency security as well as how they have
benefited federal, state and local law enforcement.
The indicted defendants
are charged in connection with a total of
40 specific instances when driver’s
licenses were allegedly issued to individuals
without the required six points of identification.
However, the investigation revealed that
the rings brokered the illicit sales of
numerous other licenses. A number of cases
against customers of the rings were resolved
prior to indictment.
Each case involved a “broker”
or brokers who would spread the word that
for a price of several thousand dollars
they would arrange for the customer to obtain
a digital driver’s license or have
a driver’s license renewed without
the required six points of identification.
In some instances, the brokers relied on
“runners” to bring them customers.
The brokers, in turn, worked with the conspiring
MVC clerks to have the licenses issued,
sometimes dealing with the clerks through
a “middleman.” For example,
the indictment involving the East Orange
motor vehicle agency charges a clerk, two
middlemen who were formerly MVC clerks,
two brokers and five runners.
The broker or another intermediary
would typically fill out the license application
or renewal application form for the customer,
so the customer would simply sign it. The
broker would usually accompany the customer
to the motor vehicle agency and provide
specific instructions regarding approaching
the conspiring clerk. The clerk would issue
the license and falsely note in MVC records
that the customer had provided sufficient
primary and secondary documents to satisfy
the six-point verification. In the Lodi
case, the clerk allegedly used Social Security
numbers stolen from an MVC database and
fabricated information that the customers
had prior Florida driver’s licenses.
The broker or a runner would collect the
agreed upon price from the customer, and
the broker would coordinate the cash payments
to the clerks and others who shared in the
illegal proceeds.
The investigations were
conducted by members of the Division of
Criminal Justice MVC Unit, within the Specialized
Crimes Bureau; the Motor Vehicle Commission’s
Division of Security, Investigation and
Internal Audit; and the New Jersey State
Police Auto Unit Document Fraud Squad.
On March 30, 2010, Lorena
J. Escobar, aka Lorena J. Uruena, 31, of
South Bound Brook, a former MVC clerk at
the Edison motor vehicle agency, pleaded
guilty to an accusation charging her with
second-degree criminal computer activity
before Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan
in Morris County. The state will recommend
that she be sentenced to three years in
state prison.
The following defendants
were charged in the indictments related
to the alleged criminal license brokering
rings involving clerks at the five motor
vehicle agencies:
LODI
MOTOR VEHICLE AGENCY
view
indictment
MVC
Clerk
- Anne
Marie Manfredonia, 43, of Little
Ferry
Broker
-
Hildeberto Salinas, 43,
of Carlstadt photo
Customers
-
Abraham Chali, aka
Carlos Jacobo, 26, of Cliffside
Park
- Miguel
G. Sacoto,
35, of Jersey City
- Melvin
Lita, aka Arben Lita,
33, of Fair Lawn
- (Juan)
Pablo Gavilanez,
26, of Irvington
-
Jose Pelaez,
26, of Bloomfield
- Gustavo
Pamavilla, 22, of Irvington
- Roberto
Yumbla, 27, of Irvington
- Ana
Altamirano, 39, of Newark
- Ariolfo
Altamirano,
42, of Newark
- Luz
Alvarez,
32, of Hackensack
-
Omar Avila, 33, of Newark
- Claudio
Angamarca,
26, of Newark
- Aurelio
Aju-Chitic,
31, of Fairview
- Sandra
Avendano-Marin,
26, South Hackensack
EAST
ORANGE MOTOR VEHICLE AGENCY
Indictment
#1 view
indictment
MVC
Clerk
- Laquanda
Murray, 28, of Newark
Middlemen
- Jason
P. Thomas, 28, of Irvington,
a former MVC clerk
- Tyrone
Q. Canada, 26, of Hillside, a
former MVC clerk
Brokers
- Martin
A. Martinez, 53, of Newark. In
a separate case, Martinez was indicted
on Nov. 10 on first-degree charges of
conspiracy and money laundering as a result
of an investigation by the Division of
Criminal Justice into an alleged conspiracy
to defraud the federally funded Women,
Infants and Children nutrition program
of more than $1 million using fraudulent
vouchers.
-
Antonio Vasquez, 40,
of Hillside
Runners
- Virginia
Martinez, 41, of Somerville
- Guillermo
“Willie” Prieto,
50, of North Bergen
- Rogerio
DaSilva, 36, of Cliffside Park
- Gustavo
Valencia, 68, of Morris Township
- Domingos
Bonela, 48, of Kenilworth
Indictment # 2
view
indictment
MVC Clerk
-
Rashaan A. Smith, 31,
of Irvington
Middlemen
- Jason
P. Thomas (also charged in East
Orange Indictment #1 above)
- Tyrone
Q. Canada (also charged in East
Orange Indictment #1 above)
EDISON
MOTOR VEHICLE AGENCY
view
indictment
Brokers
- Gustavo
Valencia, 68, of Morris Township
(also charged in East Orange Indictment
#1 above)
- Martha
Jalil,
54, of Dover
- Ricardo
Jalil,
63, of Dover (Martha’s husband)
Customers
-
Delmis Urquia,
43, of Hackettstown
- Fredy
H. Quiroga-Cobos, 34, of Dover
- Jaime
E. Espinoza,
38, of Dover
-
Constantino Grandados-Hernandez,
41, of Dover
-
Julio C. Rios-Elejalde,
33, of Wharton
- Carlos
R. Ramirez-Yepes,
52, of Morristown
JERSEY
CITY MOTOR VEHICLE AGENCY
view
indictment
MVC
Clerks
- Sonia
Noel, 48, of Union City
- Melody
Noel, 26, of Union City (Sonia’s
daughter)
Broker
- Peter
Loveras, 32, of East Rutherford
Customer
- Hernan
Chica, 53, of Hackensack
NORTH
BERGEN MOTOR VEHICLE AGENCY
view
indictment
Clerk
- Cristian
J. Toledo, 33, of North Bergen
The cases were presented
to the grand juries by Deputy Attorneys
General Paul Salvatoriello (Lodi and Edison),
Marysol Rosero (East Orange) and Frank Brady
Jr. (Jersey City and North Bergen).
The investigations were
conducted for the Division of Criminal Justice
by Sgt. Chris Anagnostis, Detective Nicholas
Olenick, Detective Christian Harden, Detective
Shawn Gorlin, State Investigator Ruben Contreras,
and the assigned deputy attorneys general,
under the supervision of Lt. Edgar Hess;
Supervising Deputy Attorney General Jacqueline
Smith, Deputy Chief of the Specialized Crimes
Bureau; Supervising Deputy Attorney General
Andrew Butchko, Acting Chief of the Specialized
Crimes Bureau; and Assistant Attorney General
Riza Dagli, Deputy Director of the Division
of Criminal Justice.
The investigations were
conducted for the Motor Vehicle Commission
by Supervising Investigator Michael Boehm,
Investigators Richard Stryker, Johannes
Segboer, Evelyn Trapasso, John Cerqueira
and William Torowicz, Administrative Analyst
Susan Arnao, and Compliance Officers Margaret
Palen and Maureen Parant, under the supervision
of Supervising Administrative Analyst Gautam
Mankad, Supervising Investigators Gary Nucera
and Charles Rehberger, Chief of Investigations
James Clifford, and Director of Security,
Investigations and Internal Audit Thomas
Flarity.
The investigations were
conducted for the New Jersey State Police
by Detective Jeovanny Rodriguez, Detective
Enrique Bryan and Trooper Jorge Recalde,
under the supervision of Lt. Anthony J.
Martin Jr., supervisor of the New Jersey
State Police Auto Unit, and Detective Sgt.
1st Class John M. Soulias.
Second-degree crimes carry
a maximum sentence of 10 years in state
prison and a criminal fine of $150,000,
while third-degree crimes carry a maximum
sentence of five years in prison and a fine
of $15,000. Each MVC clerk charged in the
indictments would face a mandatory minimum
sentence of five years in prison without
possibility of parole upon conviction under
New Jersey’s statutory penalty enhancements
for official misconduct.
The indictments are merely
accusations and the defendants are presumed
innocent until proven guilty. The indictments
were handed up in Superior Court in Mercer
County. The cases were assigned to the following
counties: Lodi to Bergen County, East Orange
to Essex County, Edison to Morris County,
and Jersey City and North Bergen to Hudson
County. Copies of the indictments are linked
to this release at www.njpublicsafety.com.
In October, the NJ MVC received
the National Security Excellence Award from
the national Coalition for a Secure Driver’s
License for the state’s next generation,
security-enhanced digital driver’s
license that was introduced in May of this
year. The coalition also cited the MVC’s
identity verification processes, document
fraud training and investigations, and current
plans for beginning a facial recognition
scrub as other reasons for the award.
Attorney General Dow and
Director Taylor noted that the Division
of Criminal Justice has established a toll-free
tipline 1-866-TIPS-4CJ
for the public to report corruption, financial
crime and other illegal activities. The
public can also log on to the Division of
Criminal Justice webpage at www.njdcj.org
to report suspected wrongdoing. All information
received through the Division of Criminal
Justice tipline or webpage will remain confidential.
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