Dallas taxi driver agrees to plea deal in driver’s licenses scam
05:49 PM CDT on Friday, May 2, 2008
By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News
eramshaw@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN – The Dallas taxi driver who helped hundreds of foreign citizens get fraudulent Texas driver's licenses between 2003 and 2005 will not serve prison time or pay a fine, under a plea agreement reached late last month.

Isaac Banai will cooperate with authorities and plead guilty to federal mail fraud, a felony that could've cost him up to $250,000 and 20 years in prison, as long as other charges of money laundering and aiding illegal immigration are dropped.

U.S. Attorney Richard Roper said he agreed to the plea, which comes before a judge on May 12, because of Mr. Banai's decision to cooperate with an ongoing investigation. But he also attributed it to "regrettable loopholes" within the state's driver's license administration that might have made prosecuting Mr. Banai difficult.

Investigators determined Mr. Banai took advantage of a major error — the state's failure to check if visas were current — to help nearly 400 illegal immigrants come to Texas to get identification.

Revelations that these same immigrants used the driver's licenses to get vehicle inspections and auto insurance prompted a game of finger-pointing, as county and state authorities failed to coordinate to clean the mess up.

“We were dealing with a system with [the Department of Public Safety] that had some clear problems,â€