Thread: Woman Sentenced in Bribery Scam to Sell Driver's Licenses

DMV FRAUD
Woman Sentenced in Bribery Scam to Sell Driver's Licenses

By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 13, 2008; Page B02

A 35-year-old restaurant owner and mother of four children was sentenced to two years in federal prison yesterday for bribing a District government employee as part of a scam that allowed dozens of people to illegally obtain D.C. driver's licenses.

Gloria Gonzalez-Paz of Lanham, who pleaded guilty to bribery in May, admitted to charging people from $1,000 to $1,700 to help them get licenses. Many applicants were illegal immigrants and others were not residents of the District. They were not required to take driving tests, vision exams or fill out basic information on applications, authorities said.

The Department of Motor Vehicles employee at the center of the scandal, Patricia E. Gonzalez, 39, has pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe and is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow. She has admitted to doling out licenses to about 200 people from October 2005 to January, when authorities broke up the scam.

In U.S. District Court yesterday, Gonzalez-Paz apologized for her mistakes but begged a federal judge to sentence her to home detention so she could care for her children and operate her business, Tropicana Eatery, a Jamaican-style carry-out restaurant in the 3500 block of 12th Street NE.


"I know what I did was bad," Gonzalez-Paz told the judge through an interpreter. "If I go to jail, everything will come tumbling down."

Judge Richard J. Leon said the offense merited prison time because untested drivers were a danger on the road and fraudulent identification was a serious problem, especially "in a post-9/11 world."

"A driver's license is the most important identification card that most people have," Leon said, adding that fraudulently obtained licenses hamper police and federal agents in crime investigations.

Leon also said that Gonzalez-Paz charged immigrants more than $1,000 for each license, a fee many could not afford. Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan B. Menzer said Gonzalez-Paz was motivated by greed and "preyed on people she took money from."

Menzer told Leon that Gonzalez-Paz played a critical role in the scam and took advantage of the DMV employee. In court papers, prosecutors wrote that Gonzalez-Paz convinced the DMV accomplice that she was helping those who could not read and write English, and that she was not keeping any money for herself.

Another middleman, Salvador Diaz, 33, has pleaded guilty to bribery and is scheduled to be sentenced in October.

The judge ordered Gonzalez-Paz to report to prison soon. She and her attorney, Aaron Caruso, declined to comment after the hearing.

Menzer and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ellen Chubin Epstein wrote in court papers that authorities were tipped off to the scam last year. FBI agents approached Gonzalez on Jan. 9 while she was working at the Georgetown branch of the DMV, prosecutors wrote. She admitted her role in the scheme during several hours of questioning and agreed to cooperate with authorities, prosecutors wrote.

A few days later, investigators watched as Gonzalez-Paz and her 15-year-old daughter parked the family minivan outside the DMV's Georgetown office, prosecutors wrote.

Another car pulled up behind them, prosecutors wrote, and a woman got out and paid Gonzalez-Paz $1,500. Gonzalez-Paz's daughter walked the woman inside the office and pointed to who supplied the licenses, prosecutors wrote. The woman got a license without taking tests or filling out an application, prosecutors wrote.

Later, Gonzalez-Paz paid Gonzalez $700 for giving the woman a license, and the restaurant owner was arrested, prosecutors wrote. As part of a plea deal, Gonzalez-Paz admitted to helping dozens of people obtain licenses in similar ways.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02241.html

DO THE MATH AT LEAST 200 AT $1,000 OR MORE EQUAL AT LEAST $200,000?

ONLY SINCE 2005;

AND HAS FOUR CHILDREN AND A RESTAURANT;

WHAT A NICE LIFE SHE WAS HAVING AT OUR EXPENSE?

PUT HER IN JAIL FOR LIFE

Don't tell me there aren't crooked people planted throughout this system making huge money to break our laws to feed this invasion. Angers me to no end.

This makes me sick....the illegals whine and say that their employers take advantage of them..when oftentimes the profiteers of illegal immigration like this sleazy woman and her daughter are from their own "community" of immigrants. The lawlessness, greed and corruption knows no boundaries....how come La RAZA doesn't complain about these La RAZA types who prey on the illegals?

The lawlessness, greed and corruption knows no boundaries....how come La RAZA doesn't complain about these La RAZA types who prey on the illegals?

Exactly....plus the many who house their own in sub-standard housing, sign them up for credit and homes they can't afford, lawyers claiming they are making them citizens when they are just taking their money......seems they have a whole lot of corrupt house cleaning on their own to do before they start blaming others. Many of them are legal citizens using illegal labor themselves. Their hands are hardley clean in this matter either.

WHEN ARE THE AMERICAN CITIZENS GOING TO GET A BREAK?

VACATIONS LIKE OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS GET TO TAKE!

AND THE MONEY THEY MAKE --
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