An owner of a driving school in Plainfield, New Jersey pleaded guilty today to conspiring for a decade with employees of the Division of Motor Vehicle Services to produce drivers' licenses in exchange for illicit cash payments, according to US Attorney Christopher J. Christie. This included providing drivers' licenses to illegal aliens.
Jose L. Flores, a/k/a "Mr. Pepe," 45, of Watchung, admitted before US District Judge William H. Walls to participating in a statewide scheme with multiple DMV employees to unlawfully generate drivers' licenses. Flores, who was an owner of a driving school he identified during the plea as Mr. Pepe's Driving School, in Plainfield, NJ, admitted making cash payments ranging from $20 to $100 to each DMV employee who assisted in generating a particular driver's license.
In exchange for illicit cash payments from him, Flores confessed that DMV employees did any of the following:
* produced drivers' licenses for students of his, who were illegal aliens not entitled to such identification documents;
* completed written drivers tests for his students;
* scheduled his students early for commercial driver's license (CDL) road test appointments;
* tested his students for CDLs without a road test appointment; and
* exercised leniency in grading the performance of his students.
Flores admitted that his involvement in this scheme lasted for a decade, from 1993 to 2003 and that he paid DMV employees on a weekly basis during that time. Flores said that the fraud involved DMV employees working at offices throughout the New Jersey, including facilities in Springfield, Trenton, South Plainfield, Randolph, Edison, and Cherry Hill.
When he is sentenced by Judge Walls, Flores faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to Assistant US Attorney Brian R. Howe. Judge Walls scheduled sentencing for March 28, 2006.
Flores is now the 15th individual to plead guilty in connection with the driver's license fraud scheme, in which employees of the state agency and non-employees received hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce and procure licenses in an unlawful manner. Flores is cooperating with the authorities in the investigation of others.