U.S. Attorney: PennDOT employees caught selling fake IDs

Federal law enforcement officials have charged three people in a scheme to sell drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants, non-citizens and those seeking false identities.

Federal law enforcement officials have charged three people in a scheme to sell drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants, non-citizens and those seeking false identities. According to authorities, three area PennDOT employees took thousands of dollars in bribes to provide hundreds of unauthorized IDs.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says brokers would recruit residents who did not qualify for licenses. They would arrange for them to go to the PennDOT location and meet the corrupt employees. One person charged in the scheme owned a driving school, and would pretend to be an “interpreter” who would tell the “customer” how to fill out the written exam.

PennDOT official Kurt Meyers says all three state employees have been fired.

“My first reaction certainly is one of, obviously, disappointment that any public official -that these individuals in these capacities would do what they did,” says Meyers. “But, having said that, the fact of the matter is, it cannot be tolerated.”

A driver’s license examiner makes between $34,000 and $52,000 a year. They allegedly took bribes of between $40 and $100 per license. Those seeking the false documents paid up to $4,000 to the brokers for a license.

Officials say the scheme lasted 17 years and created hundreds of illegal driver’s licenses.