Cases shine light on CDL schemes

Reports of alleged CDL schemes continue to pop up around the nation.

While the details of each incident vary, the shared goal of the schemes is to secure a commercial driver’s license for applicants who may not otherwise qualify.

Officials in Louisiana alleged that one such scheme allowed applicants to receive CDLs in exchange for bribes, without completing entry-level driver training or the knowledge and skills tests.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana, a local business owner, office of motor vehicle employees and a truck driver training center participated in the alleged crime.

Mahmoud Alhattab, a Louisiana restaurant owner, is alleged to have bribed Jenay Davis and Sakira Millien, employees at the Donaldsonville, La., Office of Motor Vehicles, to complete knowledge tests for CDL applicants. The indictment alleged that Davis and Millien performed internet searches to find the answers to the test.

According to the indictment, Alhattab also bribed Christopher Bryan Burns and Jonathan Parsons, owners of a truck driver training business, to falsely report in a federal database that CDL applicants had successfully completed training.

To defeat the skills test, Alhattab allegedly paid Burns and Parsons to falsify reports to the state of Louisiana. It’s also alleged that Parsons paid Marline Roberts, another skills test examiner, to create phony score sheets to corroborate the false test reports on some occasions, the indictment said.

All six defendants were jointly charged with one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.

Additionally, Alhattab and Parsons were each charged with two counts of honest wire fraud services and four counts of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. Burns, Davis and Roberts were each charged with one count of honest services wire fraud and one count of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.

Millien was charged with four counts of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.

The conspiracy and wire fraud counts are each punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment, while the bribery counts are each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Each count may also include a fine of up to $250,000 and up to three years of supervised release.

CDL fraud

The Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General also recently announced that a former water company employee has been sentenced for his role in a fraudulent CDL conspiracy.

On Sept. 3, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts sentenced Eric Mathison to one year in prison and three years of supervised release. Mathison pleaded guilty in March to one count of conspiracy to commit extortion. Mathison worked for a water company that employed drivers who needed CDLs to drive their vehicles.

According to the Office of Inspector General, Mathison conspired with former Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Gary Cederquist to give passing scores to multiple applicants from the water company who failed the test in exchange for free inventory.

Just part of the problem

Recent focus at the national and state levels has been on English-language proficiency and non-domiciled CDLs. Stakeholders like the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association have argued these are longtime problems that need to be addressed sooner rather than later.

Obtaining that initial CDL is key to ensuring compliance with safety regulations, OOIDA has said – also noting that requirements to obtain a CDL should include an English-proficiency test.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance pointed out in April that a conflict in the regulations currently allows drivers to take the knowledge test in languages other than English, potentially setting them up to fail once they take that first load. CVSA voted to petition the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to harmonize CDL testing requirements with driver qualification requirements.

Factor in alleged schemes like the ones in Louisiana and Massachusetts, and the weaknesses in CDL testing programs become even clearer. LL