DMV Fires Workers in License Scam

100 DMV Workers May Be Fired As Statewide Probe Expands
Thousands of Fraudulent Licenses May Have Been Issued

Saturday, August 2, 1997 · Page A15 ©1997 San Francisco Chronicle

Robert B. Gunnison, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Sacramento

The Magic Driving School, a man named Oswaldo and a gold bracelet are at the heart of a statewide criminal investigation into the illegal sale of thousands of drivers' licenses, identification cards and vehicle registrations, the Department of Motor Vehicles said yesterday. People wanting to buying illegal DMV documents in the Los Angeles area paid as much as $1,000 at the driving school and were instructed to meet Oswaldo in the parking lot at the Hollywood DMV office, said department spokesman Bill Gengler. Oswaldo then gave them gold bracelets that identified them as his customer and instructed them to see a specific clerk inside who would take care of them, Gengler said. The clerk has been fired, and charges against six people have been referred to the Los Angeles County district attorney. The statewide investigation may result in as many as 100 DMV employees being sacked and facing charges, Gengler said. Gengler estimated that statewide as many as 25,000 documents may have been issued fraudulently. In late May, 200 investigators were shifted from normal duties to look into illegal document sales. Two dozen clerks have been implicated in the most recent sweep, Gengler said. Still under way, he said, are 76 investigations, including 11 in the Bay Area. Gengler said most of the operations were less sophisticated than Oswaldo's. They usually involved one person working a parking lot who had a connection with a clerk on the inside. ``They would say, `I've got a friend inside who can get you a driver's license,' '' he said. At the department's 172 field offices, scrutiny of documents to prove citizenship has intensified since enactment of a 1994 law that prohibits issuance of a license to anyone not in the country legally. Applicants must show a valid birth certificate, passport or document that verifies birthday and citizenship. Previously, such papers as baptismal certificates were permitted.

Held by 20.2 million people, California drivers' licenses are a basic form of identification and are often the key to receiving other forms of identification. California licenses include holograms, sophisticated coding and layering, all designed to make it difficult to counterfeit. As documentation to receive a license has become more stringent, and forgery more difficult, pressure has increased for undocumented immigrants, felons and drivers with revoked licenses to get licenses. Since January 1996, 79 DMV employees have been accused of illegal sales of documents and three have been prosecuted in the Los Angeles area.