Latest news with #T&EDrivingSchool
CBS News
3 days ago
- CBS News
3 New York DMV employees, driving school busted in driver's license scheme, Staten Island DA says
Prosecutors say 3 N.Y. DMV examiners schemed with driving school to help people get licenses Prosecutors say 3 N.Y. DMV examiners schemed with driving school to help people get licenses Prosecutors say 3 N.Y. DMV examiners schemed with driving school to help people get licenses Prosecutors say three New York State Department of Motor Vehicles examiners schemed with a driving school to help people get licenses without ever taking the proper tests, pocketing thousands of dollars in cash along the way. Here's what is alleged Detectives say the T&E Driving School on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens charged people $1,600 to $2,000 each to falsify driving exams. Investigators say the school's owner worked with three DMV examiners and a substitute driver who posed as other people to take tests. Prosecutors say the scheme may have allowed hundreds if not thousands of people to get licenses. "Countless individuals are now driving on our roads without ever having demonstrated the basic skills to do it safely," Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon said. How the case was cracked The school is in Queens, but McMahon said the scheme involved several testing locations on Staten Island. Investigators say they cracked the case using undercover cameras and an undercover NYPD officer who paid the school $1,600. "A short time ago, our undercover, who never took the test, was told by the school he passed and was getting a license," McMahon said. How the DMV is fixing its system going forward The DMV now says it has begun the process of revoking the driving privilege of any customers of the scheme. "These individuals often did not speak or understand English and may have believed they were taking legitimate, necessary steps," said George Ioannidis, acting deputy special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations New York. The DMV says it has already made changes and will be making more improvements to ensure something like this doesn't happen again, adding the employees involved have all been either fired or are on leave without pay, no longer doing road tests. The DMV commissioner also applauded the employees who assisted in the case.
New York Post
3 days ago
- New York Post
NYC driving school rigged driver's licenses for illegal immigrants — even if they couldn't drive: DA
A Big Apple driving school paid off DMV examiners to fraudulently fast-track driver's licenses for illegal immigrants — even if they had no clue how to drive, Staten Island prosecutors said Tuesday. T&E Driving School in Queens took cash from Chinese immigrants — many of whom didn't even speak English — and paid off a crew of Department of Motor Vehicles employees on Staten Island to illegally obtain driver's licenses, District Attorney Michael McMahon said at a press conference. The crackdown, dubbed Operation Road Test, took down the ring in a joint investigation with state investigators and the US Department of Homeland Security, prosecutors said. 4 Staten Island prosecutors said a Queens driving school ran a DMV pay-to-drive scam for illegal immigrants. Michael McWeeney 'Our investigation found that T&E Driving School blatantly flouted the laws and procedures that are necessary to ensure the public safety on the road,' George Ioannidis, assistant special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations in New York said Tuesday. 'As alleged T&E utilized social media and strategic advertising to Target exploited members of the Chinese community and guaranteed individual driver's licenses regardless of their immigration status, language, and even their ability to operate a vehicle,' he said. 'Moreover these individuals were those who did not speak or understand English and may have believed that they all were taking necessary and legitimate steps.' T&E owner Weixian Tan, secretary Weiwen Tan, employee Winnie Yang and school road test driver Wenfeng Yang set up the scam by paying off DMV examiners Aji Idicula, Tianna Rose Andolina and Edward Tarik Queen, according to the indictment. 4 Staten Island DA Michael McMahon said the T&E driving school ran a DMV fraud scam for illegal immigrants. James Messerschmidt 4 Wenfend Yang and three other employees of T&E Driving School are charged with an illegal immigrant DMV scam. Michael McWeeney The examiners would then rubber stamp the wanna-be drivers without even having them take a road test. McMahon said the scam extends beyond the seven named indictments, with two dozen suspects in custody and another indicted DMV employee not identified in the 49-page document. 'The numbers, as we go through this investigation, as we go through the materials that have been seized, we think that we are going to find hundreds if not thousands of people that have been part of this scam,' the prosecutor said. 'The number of tests given by an individual examiner can be about 1,500 a year,' he said. 'Two out of the three examiners have been working for four or five years, so we think this is just the tip of the iceberg.' 4 Staten Island prosecutors said DMV examiners took illegal payoffs to issue fraudulent licenses to immigrants. Getty Images In a statement, McMahon called the pay-to-drive scheme a 'corrosively corrupt' operation centered on DMV workers who 'brazenly betrayed their oaths of office.' The defendants were arraigned on a slew of fraud, tampering and theft charges and were released — the charges are not eligible for bail under the state's controversial 2019 criminal justice reforms. However, they were ordered to surrender their passports.
