Washington, D.C. – A former Department of Motor Vehicle Employee, Patricia E. Gonzalez, 39, of Takoma Park, Maryland, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison and 200 hours of community service for her role in a bribery scheme in which she accepted thousands of dollars from several persons in exchange for her issuing more than 200 driver’s licenses to foreign nationals between 2005 and early 2008, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Joseph Persichini, Jr., and D.C. Inspector General Charles J. Willoughby announced.

Gonzalez was sentenced earlier this morning in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Richard J. Leon, who characterized the defendant’s conduct as “unacceptable” and “serious.” However, the Court, in imposing a lighter sentence than recommended under the sentencing guidelines, took into account the substantial assistance the defendant provided to the government following her arrest. The Court expressly stated that the defendant would likely have received a significantly greater sentence but for her cooperation, a fact other public officials charged with criminal activity should heed, the Court added. On May 19, 2008, Gonzalez, a naturalized citizen, pled guilty to Receipt of a Bribe by a Public Official.

“By selling her public office for private gain, Patricia Gonzalez breached the public’s trust and undermined the integrity of the Department of Motor Vehicles,” said U.S. Attorney Taylor. “While Ms. Gonzalez should be credited for cooperating with law enforcement, the fact remains that her illegal conduct was extremely serious and harms the safety and security interests of our community.”

"Today's sentencing illustrates that the FBI will continue to address all reports of illegal activity conducted by government employees, whether it be on the local, state or federal level," stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge Persichini.

During Gonzalez’s prior plea proceeding, she 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 the government’s filings reflected, 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 has admitted 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, 33, of Silver Spring, Maryland, Gloria Gonzalez-Paz, 35, of Lanham, Maryland, 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.

Gloria Gonzalez-Paz and Salvador Diaz have both entered guilty pleas to Payment of a Bribe to a Public Official for their roles in the bribery scheme. Gonzalez-Paz was sentenced on August 12, 2008, to a term of 24 months in prison and 250 hours of community service. Diaz is scheduled to be sentenced on October 2, 2008.

Ten other individuals, all of whom fraudulently obtained facially valid D.C. driver’s licenses from Gonzalez, have pled guilty to misdemeanor fraud and are awaiting sentencing. None of these individuals took the required examinations and only one resided in D.C., but they nevertheless obtained facially valid driver’s licenses. They face a maximum sentence of 180 days and a fine of $1,000.

In announcing today’s sentence, 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 District of Columbia Office of the Inspector General Special Agent Teddy Clark. They also praised Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ellen Chubin Epstein and Susan B. Menzer, who are prosecuting the cases.