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Ex-clerks to plead guilty
Sentencing set for others in ID fraud

December 8, 2005

Email this Print this BY DAVID ASHENFELTER

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Three former Michigan Secretary of State clerks plan to plead guilty to charges that they sold fraudulent driver's licenses and identification cards to illegal immigrants and people with bad driving records, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

Barbara Ann Wilkey, 56, of West Bloomfield, who worked at branches in Detroit and Livonia, is to plead guilty Wednesday to conspiring to sell driver's licenses and IDs to illegal immigrants from late 2003 to April.

Detroiters Kimberly Murray, 33, and Regjean Welch, 27, are expected to plead guilty to charges that they sold driver's licenses with fake names to people with criminal records, poor credit or bad driving records in 2001-02. No dates have been set for their pleas.

The charges were prompted in part by a nationwide crackdown on corruption at state motor vehicle departments.

In a plea agreement filed Tuesday, Wilkey said she sold the documents to Daher Al-Mayahi, 37, of Dearborn Heights and Ali Hawil, 34 of Dearborn, who also have pleaded guilty in the case and are scheduled for sentencing Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow.

Al-Mayahi is an Iraqi national and permanent U.S. resident. Hawil is a citizen of Guinea and is facing deportation.

The men admitted bringing illegal immigrants from the East Coast to Michigan to obtain driver's licenses or identification documents as a first step toward receiving immigrant visas and other documents so they could stay in the United States.

Wilkey said she provided the customers with driver's licenses and other documents without requiring them to present valid identification documents, proof of residency or take a written knowledge test.

Court documents said she received regular payments from the Al-Mayahi and Hawil in the form of cash, entertainment and repayment of gambling debts. She mailed the ID cards to the homes of Hawil and Al-Mayahi and other locations.

Both men are facing 24- to 30-month prison sentences and fines up to $250,000.

If Wilkey follows through on the plea and Tarnow accepts it, she would face 6 to 16 months in prison and a possible fine. All three agreed to cooperate with investigators.

Her lawyer, Deputy Federal Defender Stacey Studnicki, declined to comment.

Welch and her ex-boyfriend -- Andre Denard Donaldson, 34, of Detroit -- are charged in a separate case. Court documents filed Tuesday said Donaldson arranged for people to come to Welch's counter at the Livonia branch to obtain fraudulent ID documents.

Customers paid Donaldson $100-$500 for the documents and Donaldson shared the money with Welch, court papers said.

Murray, who worked at a Detroit branch, said she issued alias ID cards for eight to 10 people for $300 per customer.

Federal authorities, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, have been cracking down on driver's license fraud because the licenses can be used for immigration, bank and mortgage fraud; identity theft and terrorism.

Contact DAVID ASHENFELTER at 313-223-4490.