License fraud case now in jurors' hands

Posted: Saturday, May 4, 2013 6:00 pm | Updated: 8:03 pm, Sat May 4, 2013.
Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE — The case of a man accused in a driver’s license scam that involved Chinese foreign nationals who were in the U.S. illegally is in the hands of jurors.

The jury began deliberations in the case of Gordon Leong, 24, on Friday. He’s charged with 110 felony counts in connection with a scheme that involved securing New Mexico driver’s licenses for more than 60 people.

Prosecutors accused Leong and others of running newspaper advertisements in Chinese newspapers in New York, promising New Mexico driver’s licenses for $1,500 each. New Mexico and Washington state allow those in the country illegally to obtain the same driver’s license as a U.S. citizen.

Prosecutors said the group would use fraudulent documents to get the licenses.

Leong’s attorney, Erlinda Ocampo Johnson, described the investigation as “shoddy,” ”poor” and “inadequate.”

“The state brought many witnesses with a motive to embellish or outright lie,” she told jurors.

Johnson pointed out that the trial involved a “hot-button issue” of providing licenses to foreign nationals who were in the U.S. illegally, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

When the indictments were first announced in 2011, Gov. Susana Martinez praised the work of law enforcement and prosecutors. She has said New Mexico laws concerning driver’s licenses attract criminals to the state who then exploit the driver’s license policy and threaten the safety and security of New Mexicans.

During the last legislative session, for the third straight year, Democrats blocked the Republican governor’s efforts to change the driver’s license policy.

Prosecutors accused Leong, Tin Cheung and Alex Cheung of running the advertisements between March 2009 and November 2010. They leased multiple apartments simultaneously in Albuquerque and secured licenses for 62 people.

Tin and Alex Cheung also notarized residential and lease agreement documents fraudulently for their customers, according to the indictment. Their customers flew into Albuquerque from New York, obtained their driver’s permits and left the state, prosecutors said. The ringleaders had the actual licenses mailed to an address in Albuquerque and then forwarded to their clients in New York.

The New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division canceled all the driver’s licenses issued in this case after the arrest of Leong and three of his alleged customers, who prosecutors say flew into New Mexico to pick up their licenses.

During the Leong’s trial, jurors heard from two of the individuals who sought licenses, Shu Sheng Lui and Fongyee Hiew. Their initial charges were dropped after they entered pleas to petty misdemeanors.

In Leong’s case, prosecutors dropped some counts of the original indictment, and state District Judge Brett Loveless further whittled down the package that went to jurors. The charges include forgery, making a false affidavit, racketeering and conspiracy.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph Spindle said four counts each relate to 27 people who applied for driver’s licenses with false affidavits of residence. Twenty-one of them listed addresses where Leong had signed the lease, most of them efficiency apartments where only a single resident was permitted by the property managers.

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