TRENTON – Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced that a former clerk at the Lodi Motor Vehicle Agency was sentenced to state prison today for illegally selling New Jersey digital driver’s licenses to unauthorized persons.

Anne Marie Manfredonia, 44, of Little Ferry, a former clerk in the Lodi Motor Vehicle Agency, was sentenced to four years in state prison, including two years of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Roma in Bergen County. Manfredonia pleaded guilty on March 12 to charges of second-degree conspiracy and third-degree tampering with public records. She will be permanently barred from public employment in New Jersey. Deputy Attorney General Debra Conrad prosecuted the case and handled the sentencing for the Division of Criminal Justice Specialized Crimes Bureau.

“Because New Jersey digital driver’s licenses are such a powerful form of identification, used to obtain credit and board airliners, we need to safeguard the integrity of our system of security checks in issuing them,” said Attorney General Chiesa. “This prison sentence should send a strong deterrent message to any public employee involved in the process who would consider betraying the trust placed in them.”

“We’ll continue to work closely with the Motor Vehicle Commission to detect and charge any clerks, brokers or customers who are involved in illegal sales of driver’s licenses to unauthorized persons,” said Stephen J. Taylor, Director of the Division of Criminal Justice. “We’re moving forward with our prosecutions of the 40 defendants we indicted in connection with these schemes late last year.”

In pleading guilty, Manfredonia admitted that she conspired with a broker, Hildeberto Salinas, 44, of Carlstadt, to sell New Jersey digital driver’s licenses to customers who did not have the required six points of identification. Salinas pleaded guilty on March 19 to second-degree charges of bribery and conspiracy. He was sentenced on April 27 to four years in prison and was ordered to pay a $20,000 fine.

Manfredonia and Salinas were among 40 defendants named in indictments unsealed on Dec. 5, 2011, which also alleged conspiracies to illegally sell driver’s licenses out of the East Orange, Edison, North Bergen and Jersey City motor vehicle agencies. In some cases, the customers, who are foreign nationals, did not qualify for a license because they were in the U.S. illegally. In other cases, they lacked sufficient documentation. The customers paid between $2,500 and $7,000 for a license or license renewal, and the MVC clerks and brokers split the proceeds. The indictments resulted from joint investigations by the Division of Criminal Justice and Motor Vehicle Commission.

The investigations were conducted by members of the Division of Criminal Justice MVC Unit, within the Specialized Crimes Bureau, and the Motor Vehicle Commission’s Division of Security, Investigation and Internal Audit.

Attorney General Chiesa 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.