https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/federal-grand-jury-issues-indictment-latest-case-investigation-dmv-employees-who-took

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Central District of California

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Federal Grand Jury Issues Indictment in Latest Case in Investigation into DMV Employees Who Took Bribes to Issue Driver’s Licenses

LOS ANGELES – A federal grand jury today indicted alleged “brokers” accused of scheming to illegally obtain driver’s licenses for ineligible applicants by paying bribes to corrupt employees of the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

Carlos Alberto Zea Londono, 58, of Granada Hills, and Eudelia Lopez Martinez, 50, of South Los Angeles, were charged in a superseding indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud, a felony offense that carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

Also charged in today’s indictment are Rogelio Zazueta, 52, of Huntington Park, and Arestakes Khachikyan, a.k.a. “Aries,” 54, of Granada Hills, who each face one count of aiding and abetting the illegal production of identification documents, which carries a 15-year statutory maximum prison sentence. The superseding indictment adds two new charges and three additional defendants to a June 2020 indictment that charged only Zazueta with the aiding and abetting count.

Today’s indictment alleges that, from April to October 2016, Londono and Lopez negotiated the price that ineligible driver’s license applicants would pay in cash to fraudulently receive passing scores on the written test and/or driving test needed to obtain a California driver’s license. The cash payments ranged from $400 to $1,400, according to the indictment.

The brokers then contacted the scheme’s ringleader – Atanacio Villegas, a.k.a. “A.T.,” 46, of Portales, New Mexico, but who previously lived in Long Beach and who worked as a license registration examiner at the DMV office in Torrance. Londono and Lopez allegedly paid Villegas cash bribes for the issuance of a validly issued California driver’s licenses without applicants taking the necessary tests to legitimately obtain it. The brokers allegedly also provided Villegas the personal identifying information for the driver’s license applicants.

Villegas then solicited the services of different California DMV employees who also took cash bribes to make fraudulent entries in the DMV’s computer database to indicate that an applicant had passed the necessary written or driving tests – even though the applicant never actually took or passed the required tests to obtain a California driver’s license. Based on the fraudulent entries, the corrupt DMV employees then unlawfully issued instructional permits or driver’s licenses to the applicants, the indictment alleges.

As a result, the California DMV prepared and mailed a California driver’s license to applicants that they were not lawfully entitled to receive. Law enforcement believes that more than 100 driver’s licenses were illegally issued because of the scheme.

Zazueta allegedly aided and abetted the unlawful production of a California identification document in July 2016 on behalf of an individual. According to an affidavit filed with a criminal complaint in this case, Zazueta told the individual that he had connections at the Torrance DMV and could get a license for the individual for $1,200. The individual was issued a driver’s permit even though the individual had not taken a written test, the affidavit states.

The indictment further alleges that Khachikyan aided and abetted the unlawful production of California identification document in July 2016 on behalf of an individual for whom a corrupt DMV employee entered passing scores on a test required for an instructional permit, then issued the permit without the individual taking or passing the required tests.

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Villegas is scheduled to plead guilty on June 21 to a seven-count information charging him with honest services mail fraud. In his plea agreement, Villegas admitted that he and other DMV employees accepted cash bribes at least several times per week, and otherwise ineligible drivers would be directed to the window of a corrupt DMV employee with an “identifier” such as a red hat, in order to fraudulently obtain their licenses.

In a related case, Jovana Tameka Nettles, 44, of Norwalk, pleaded guilty on May 17 to three counts of honest services wire fraud. Nettles, a former manager at the DMV office in the Lincoln Park area of Los Angeles, admitted to fraudulently entering passing scores for applicants and issuing instructional permits for applicants who had not taken or passed the required tests in exchange for bribes. Nettles’ sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 23.

In another related matter, Taliesha Shunte Ratliff, 37, of Gardena, a former DMV employee in Torrance, pleaded guilty in August 2020 to a single-count information charging her with soliciting and accepting bribes. She is expected to be sentenced in the coming months.

Also, Otto Escobar, Sr., 63, of Granada Hills, pleaded guilty in November 2020 to one count of aiding and abetting concerning programs receiving federal funds. Escobar, who formerly operated the Van Nuys-based OK Driving School, admitted in his plea agreement that, from 2015 to 2017, he charged his customers a fee for obtaining a fraudulent passing DMV score, and to facilitate the fraud, and he collected money used to bribe DMV employees to commit the fraud. Escobar’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 7, at which time he will face 10 years in federal prison.

The United States Coast Guard Investigative Service and the California Department of Motor Vehicles Office of Internal Affairs is investigating this matter. This matter is a spin-off investigation of CGIS Operation Buzzkill an investigation to protect maritime safety and security involving the use of fraudulent identification documents by truckers to gain access to secure and restrict areas of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. That investigation resulted in 16 convictions and also resulted in the identification of several corrupt DMV employees who were fraudulently issuing California driver’s licenses.

Assistant United States Attorneys Amanda M. Bettinelli and Erik M. Silber of the Environmental and Community Safety Crimes Section are prosecuting these cases.

U.S. Attorney’s Office

District of Maryland

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Manager of Pain Clinic, Her Boyfriend, and Customers Facing Federal Charges for a Drug Distribution Conspiracy

Baltimore, Maryland – A criminal complaint has been filed charging the manager of a pain clinic, her boyfriend, and several customers with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, including oxycodone and oxymorphone. The defendants charged in the criminal complaint are:

Monica Raynette Clark age 31, of Waldorf, Maryland;

Michael Tyrone Scott III age 28, of Waldorf, Maryland;

Larry Nathaniel Waller age 48, of Williamson, West Virginia;

Mildred Taylor age 67, of Stephenson, West Virginia;

Jason James Johnson age 41, of Kermit, West Virginia; and

Lisa Ann Lewis age 41, of Smithsburg, Maryland.

The complaint was filed on May 17, 2021 and unsealed today upon the arrest of five defendants. The sixth defendant, Larry Nathanial Waller, is in West Virginia state custody on pending charges.

The criminal complaint was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Jonathan F. Lenzner; Special Agent in Charge James A. Dawson of the FBI’s Washington Field Office Criminal Division; and Special Agent in Charge Maureen Dixon of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG).

According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, law enforcement obtained evidence that drug trafficking was occurring at two pain clinics—Memorial Care Center, located in Woodbridge, Virginia (“Memorial Care”) and Washington DC Spine Center (“WDC Spine”), which closed in August 2019. Clark was employed as the office manager of Memorial Care and was previously the office manager of WDC Spine. Clark was not a physician and did not have a Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) registration number. The criminal complaint alleges that, since Clark was not authorized to prescribe controlled substances, she forged prescriptions for opioids using prescription pads from the clinics’ doctors, then illegally sold the forged opioid prescriptions to opioid users and diverters, including customers who live in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, such as Waller, Taylor, Johnson, and Lewis. Clark is allegedly in a romantic relationship with Scott, who assists Clark in selling the forged prescriptions.

As detailed in the criminal complaint affidavit, investigation revealed that Waller, Johnson, Taylor, and Lewis are customers of Clark who purchase opioid prescriptions for themselves and for others. Law enforcement allegedly discovered text messages between Clark and Waller, Johnson, Taylor, and Lewis arranging for the purchase of forged opioid prescriptions. For example, the complaint alleges that from July 2019 to April 2021, more than 40 prescriptions were filled in Johnson’s name that were purportedly signed under the name of a Memorial Care and/or WDC Spine doctor.

The affidavit alleges that in an effort to evade scrutiny by law enforcement, Clark used several different phones to sell prescriptions and instructed customers to use specific pharmacies to fill prescriptions. For example, Clark allegedly advised Taylor to fill prescriptions at a pharmacy “in Woodbridge… as long as everybody has a West Virginia ID or Virginia ID” as Clark was purportedly aware that pharmacies had begun to refuse opioid prescriptions from Memorial Care. The criminal complaint further alleges this was in relation to an order of prescriptions for more than 20 individuals.

The criminal complaint further alleges that Clark instructed an undercover agent to claim a fictious work injury in order to receive a professional recommendation for opioid use. For example, Clark allegedly stated “When you get a free second, go to the emergency room. Tell them you had an accident at work… tell them you are having numbness and tingling in your leg and your foot. That warrants.” Further, the complaint alleges that Clark later arranged to sell forged prescriptions to the undercover agent. Clark and the undercover agent exchanged conversations in which Clark details meeting dates and times, the price for forged prescriptions, and a deviance in sales methodology as clients began to be compromised by police.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

This case is also part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

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https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/manager-pain-clinic-her-boyfriend-and-customers-facing-federal-charges-drug-distribution

“State and federal authorities are working to shut down ‘pain clinics’ that are really just fronts for criminals who divert pharmaceutical drugs and hook a new generation of addicts” said Acting U.S. Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner. “Those who irresponsibly write opioid prescriptions are acting like street-corner drug pushers. We are determined to reduce the number of opioid overdose deaths here in Maryland.”