Washington, D.C. – A former Department of Motor Vehicle Employee, Patricia E. Gonzalez, 39, of Takoma Park, Maryland, and Gloria Gonzalez Paz, 35, of Lanham, Maryland, have each pled guilty to bribery relating to the issuance of facially valid, but fraudulently obtained, District of Columbia driver’s licenses, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Federal Bureau of Investigation Assistant Director in Charge Joseph Persichini, Jr., and D.C. Inspector General Charles J. Willoughby announced today.

Gonzalez pleaded guilty earlier today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Richard J. Leon to a one-count Information charging Receipt of a Bribe by a Public Official. In pleading guilty, Gonzalez, admitted that from October 19, 2005 to January 16, 2008, she issued approximately 200 driver’s licenses to foreign nationals, who were either ineligible to obtain a driver’s license from the District of Columbia or did not successfully complete the examination requirements.

Gonzalez was hired by the District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles in June 2002 as a Customer Service Representative. Beginning in June 2002, Gonzalez was assigned to the DMV branch at 1233 Brentwood Road, NE, Washington, D.C. In May 2007, Gonzalez was promoted to Legal Instrument Examiner. In May 2007, she also was transferred to the Georgetown Service Center, located in the lower level of 3222 M Street, NW, Washington, D.C.

As Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan B. Menzer explained to the Court, the District of Columbia permits foreign nationals, who are legally present in the United States and can continue to legally reside in the United States for at least another six months, to obtain driver’s licenses. To apply for a driver’s license, however, a foreign national must complete an application and present proof of his name, date of birth, social security number, and District of Columbia residency. Once a foreign national establishes his eligibility to obtain a driver’s license, he must pass the vision screening test and, depending upon whether he possesses a valid out-of-state or foreign driver’s license, he must take either or both the knowledge and road skills tests. Any District of Columbia driver’s license issued to a foreign national, however, remains valid only as long as that individual is legally present in the United States.

Gonzalez admitted in Court today that for the 200 fraudulent driver’s licenses she issued she did not require the foreign national to complete an application or present complete documentation, verifying his name, date of birth, social security number, District of Columbia residency, or legal presence in the U.S. In order to issue the licenses, Gonzalez admitted entering false information into DMV’s computer system and using her override authority where the computer system’s internal controls rejected the data. For example, if the social security number Gonzalez entered failed to verify because it did not match the name or date of birth entered or was invalid (e.g., the number had yet to be issued by the Social Security Administration), she overrode the system and falsely asserted in a comment box that the customer had presented a verification letter from the Social Security Administration. If a customer did not possess a social security number, Gonzalez often entered “000-00-0000" and made a false comment entry that a social security number verification was not required. With respect to the legal presence in the U.S. requirement, Gonzalez falsely entered that many of these individuals were U.S. citizens. For others, she elevated an individual’s status to Permanent Resident and extended the expiration date of the individual’s legal status significantly to avoid the requirement that D.C. driver’s license expire on the date of expiration of legal status and fraudulently extended the expiration date of the driver’s license to the maximum period permitted by law, that is, the individual’s last birthday within five years from the date the driver’s license was issued.

Gonzalez bypassed the knowledge and road skills examination requirements by falsely entering data in the computer system that the foreign national possessed a valid out-of-state or foreign driver’s license, input bogus test results or added a comment that the system that verified the test results was down.

Gonzalez claimed that she began issuing fraudulent driver’s licenses because she sympathized with individuals who could not meet the eligibility requirements or pass either the knowledge or road skills tests. Yet, in the Fall of 2006, she began accepting money from others to provide these services. According to the Statement of Offense, Gonzalez accepted between $500 and $1,000 for issuing fraudulent driver’s licenses. At least three individuals, Salvador Diaz, Gloria Gonzalez-Paz and a third unidentified person brought foreign nationals to Gonzalez at either the Brentwood or Georgetown DMV branches. In total, Gonzalez admitted receiving more than $10,000 from these individuals. Gonzalez is scheduled to be sentenced on August 14, 2008. She faces a maximum sentence of 15 years and a fine of $250,000 under the statute, and a likely sentence of 37 to 46 months in prison under the federal sentencing guidelines.

Previously, on May 13, 2008, Gloria Gonzalez-Paz admitted that in the Spring of 2007, she solicited Gonzalez’s assistance to obtain a driver’s license for an illiterate uncle. Sometime thereafter, Gonzalez-Paz began bringing other foreign nationals to Gonzalez to obtain facially valid driver’s licenses. Most of these individuals were not eligible to obtain such driver’s licenses because they did not reside in the District of Columbia or were not legally present within the U.S. or for as long as Gonzalez entered into the DMV computer system. She admitted to bringing dozens of individuals to Gonzalez for which she received between $1,000 and $1,700. After the fraudulent driver’s licenses were issued, Gonzalez-Paz admitted paying Gonzalez between $500 and $700 for each fraudulent license that Gonzalez issued. Gonzalez-Paz is scheduled to be sentenced on August 12, 2008. She similarly faces a maximum sentence of 15 years and a fine of $250,000 under the statute, and a likely sentence of 24 to 30 months in prison under the federal sentencing guidelines.

In addition to Gonzalez and Gonzalez-Paz’s guilty pleas, the following four individuals previously pled guilty to misdemeanor fraud: Dora Morales of Vienna, Virginia, Jose Leonades Andrades of Riverdale, Maryland, Marina Montiel of Hyattsville, Maryland, and Violeta Del Orbe Mercedes of Hyattsville, Maryland. Each of these individuals admitted during their plea hearings that they paid Gonzalez-Paz between $1,000 and $1,500 to obtain a D.C. driver’s license even though none of them resided in the District of Columbia. None of these individuals took the required examinations, but they nevertheless obtained facially valid driver’s licenses. Judge Leon has not scheduled a date for their sentencing hearings. They face a maximum sentence of 180 days and a fine of $1,000.

In announcing the guilty pleas, U.S. Attorney Taylor, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Persichini and Inspector General Willougby commended the investigatory work of FBI Special Agents Albert Tenuta and Sean Ryan and D.C. OIG Special Agent Teddy Clark. They also praised Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ellen Chubin Epstein and Susan B. Menzer, who are prosecuting the cases.