Clerks may have sold drivers licenses

By Chris Sykes, Staff Writer
Forty people, including six former clerks, were indicted for illegally selling driver’s licenses to unauthorized persons at five Motor Vehicle Commission agencies, including the East Orange office.
During a press conference Tuesday, Attorney General Paula Dow said the East Orange office was one of five municipalities with MVC offices where illegalities were alleged to have taken place. The others are in Lodi, Edison, Jersey City and North Bergen. All the clerks were summarily fired once their alleged crimes became known.
Dow said two indictments, unsealed Tuesday, basically allege the same crimes inside the East Orange MVC office. Ten individuals, including two former clerks in the East Orange office, were charged in the first indictment; two of them, along with a third man, were named in the second indictment based in the same office.
According to Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor, the Division of Criminal Justice, obtained six grand jury indictments which charged all 40 defendants with conspiracy, official misconduct, computer criminal activity and tampering with public records or information.
Many defendants were also charged with bribery; most of the clerks, brokers and other intermediaries face multiple counts of each charge.
The first three charges charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and the clerks would face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years without parole under New Jersey’s anti-corruption laws.
Dow said the defendants allegedly conspired in schemes in which brokers and clerks sold driver’s licenses to customers who did not have the required six points of identification.
In some cases, Dow said, customers who were foreign nationals did not qualify for a license because they were in the United States illegally. In other cases, she said that they lacked sufficient documentation. She claimed customers paid between $2,500 and $7,000 for a driver’s license or license renewal; clerks and brokers split the funds.
“We have zero tolerance for corrupt motor vehicle clerks, who can undermine public safety through their access to personal information and their ability to issue driver’s licenses,” said Dow. “We know criminals seek black-market driver’s licenses to commit identity theft and fraud, and on 9-1-1, the terrorists used licenses from other states to help them carry out their deadly plots.”
“We want to send a forceful deterrent message to those who broker illegal sales of driver’s licenses and to clerks who might be motivated by greed to sell out the trust placed in them,” Taylor said. “They will be subject to lengthy prison terms. We urge the public to report criminals involved in the fraudulent identification market, who typically exploit the immigrant community.”