Cuban citizen sentenced for CDL fraud scheme

A Cuban citizen was sentenced to prison for his role in a CDL scheme.

In November, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas sentenced Fernando Guardado Vazquez, a Cuban citizen, in connection with a scheme to fraudulently issue commercial driver’s licenses. He was sentenced to 11 months of incarceration and 36 months of supervised release, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General.

Alonzo Blackman, Vasquez and Marino Maury Diaz-Leon were indicted in a federal court in July 2019 in San Antonio. The indictment accuses the three of falsifying skills tests for commercial driver’s license applicants.

From January 2017 to June 2019, Vazquez and Diaz-Leon, both Cuban citizens who reside in Texas, are alleged to have paid Blackman, a Texas Department of Public Safety employee, to falsely certify that certain applicants for CDLs had passed their skills portion of the test. Those applicants had either previously failed the test or otherwise would have failed if taken under normal conditions.

According to the court documents, Vazquez and Diaz-Leon provided Blackman with the names and information of the applicants. Blackman then falsely indicated the applicants had passed their skills test. Subsequently, he would print out a temporary CDL license for those applicants. The department then sent them a permanent CDL under the assumption they had satisfied all of the requirements.

The majority of these illegally obtained CDLs were allegedly handed out to Cuban citizens living in the U.S.

Of the 215 fraudulent CDLs, 197 went to Cuban nationals, 11 to U.S. citizens, one to a Dominican Republic national, one to an Ethiopian national, one to an Iraqi national, one to a Puerto Rican national, one to a Ukrainian national, and two to Mexican nationals.

On May 9, Vazquez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services fraud.

Blackman was sentenced to 24 months in prison, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas. In addition to the prison sentence, Blackman was ordered to pay a monetary judgment of $215,000. Blackman on Feb. 13, 2020, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and honest services fraud.

Diaz-Leon has been sentenced to 12 months and 1 day in prison for his role in the CDL fraud scheme.  On May 26, 2021, Diaz-Leon pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and honest services fraud. LL