Virginia DMV aides held in license fraud

Federal authorities yesterday arrested two clerks at the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles branch in Tysons Corner and four associates in a suspected $1 million scheme to produce and sell authentic Virginia driver’s licenses to unqualified applicants during the past five years.

U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said more than 1,000 licenses were sold for fees ranging from $800 to $1,600 each to buyers who could not otherwise obtain legitimate licenses. He said many of the buyers cut in lines at the busy Tysons Corner DMV office, with one of the four associates directing the applicants to the two clerks who participated in the scheme.

“This case is part of an ongoing effort by the Department of Justice to expose and stop identification document fraud,” Mr. McNulty said at a press conference yesterday in which the arrests were announced. “Maintaining the integrity of state licenses is a critical part of our efforts to deter terrorism and other serious crimes in the wake of September 11.

“We have to take identification fraud seriously, especially on a massive scale like this, since concealing one’s identity has been and will continue to be a part of the terrorists’ playbook,” he said. “We don’t know who got all these licenses, which are real but went to people who didn’t deserve them.”

Mr. McNulty said there was no evidence that the ring is related to terrorism.

The two clerks, Consuelo Onate-Banzon, 46, of Lorton, and Rony Razon, 31, of Vienna, and three of their associates, Mr. Razon’s mother, Alicia Razon, 58, and Alfredo Aparicio, 35, both of Alexandria, and Irma Valdes, 31, of Silver Spring, have been charged with conspiring to produce Virginia driver’s licenses by fraud. If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

The fourth associate, Daniel Ramos, 29, of Silver Spring has been charged with misusing Social Security account numbers to obtain DMV benefits and, if convicted, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

The four associates were not employed by the DMV.

“This case is particularly troubling,” Mr. McNulty said. “Two leading members of the ring were DMV employees who profited handsomely from their activities. Sadly, Virginia has developed a significant reputation for being a place where identity fraud can be perpetrated.”

Peter Gadiel, a board member with the 9/11 Families for a Secure America Foundation, was angered but not surprised that the Virginia licenses had been sold. His son, James, a Washington and Lee University graduate, was killed during the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

This past winter, Mr. Gadiel successfully lobbied lawmakers in Richmond for legislation to bar illegal aliens from obtaining Virginia driver’s licenses. The law goes into effect Jan. 1.

“It goes to show we have to be enforcing our immigration laws better,” Mr. Gadiel said. “If we enforced the laws against people who hire illegal aliens in the first place, we wouldn’t have these problems.”

Mr. McNulty said Mrs. Onate-Banzon and Mr. Razon used their positions as clerks to produce driver’s licenses for immigrants located and brought to them by Mrs. Razon, Mr. Aparicio, Mrs. Valdes and Mr. Ramos.

In many cases, he said, the immigrants posed as Virginia residents when, in fact, they lived in another state. In other instances, the immigrants could not pass the required tests, could not adequately prove their identities, or used false names or Social Security account numbers, he said.

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