Posted on 03/10/2006 5:25:59 PM PST by csvset
(03-10) 16:24 PST OAKLAND -- A fifth employee of the state Department of Motor Vehicles in Oakland is facing federal charges of accepting bribes in exchange for providing driver's licenses and identification cards to illegal immigrants, according to court records unsealed today.
The allegations are the latest in a scandal that saw DMV employees accepting bribes of as much as $4,500 per bogus document and issued more than 200 fraudulent drivers licenses and ID cards between November 2003 and June 2005.
The latest suspect, DMV employee Marla Robinson, accepted bribes in June and July 2005 to process processed fraudulent driver's licenses for people who paid $1,000 to $1,500 to "broker" Jose Ramirez, who was not a DMV employee, according to an indictment unsealed today in Oakland.
Robinson and Ramirez face charges of conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud and seven related charges.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken sentenced DMV worker Brachelle Fifer to six months of home detention for a similar scheme. Three other DMV employees have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
The charges are the result of a 20-month investigation in which agents secretly followed employees, dug through one suspect's trash and spied on the busy Oakland DMV office at 5300 Claremont Ave., where all five DMV employees worked.
There, undercover FBI agents acting as clients bypassed the DMV's notoriously long lines with the help of brokers who directed them to specific windows where a bribed DMV worker was waiting to process them, authorities said.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/03/10/BAGDAHMAJF20.DTL
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
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The pass gave him access to the buildings' sprinkler systems.
I bet he "fixed" them real good...
Treason is not too strong a word.
Three DMV employees arrested for selling phony driver's licenses
However, in Northern Virginia, a corrupt DMV manager will charge $3,5000.
Virginia DMV official, wife held for selling valid driver's licenses.
ping list, please
If any of these documents obtained by bribe are ever used to execute a terrorist attack,then the DMV employees involved should face capital murder charges.
In a just world that would happen.
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