Two men were sentenced for their roles in a CDL test cheating scam recently.
On March 31 and April 1 Joachim Pierre and Dale Harper were sentenced in U.S. District Court, Brooklyn, New York. Pierre was sentenced to six months’ in jail and $5,100 in fines and Harper was sentenced three years’ probation and 100 hours of community service.
After a three-day trial in July of 2015, a federal jury found Pierre and Harper, along with three other defendants, guilty of charges related to cheating on commercial driver’s license tests. Six other defendants pleaded.
A statement from U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General.
“The investigation revealed that fraudulent CDL test-taking activities had taken place at five New York State Department of Motor Vehicle test centers in the New York City area. Surveillance operations identified these individuals participating in the fraud scheme, including NYS DMV security personnel, an external test-taker, facilitators, runners, and lookouts.
“Conspiring CDL applicants paid facilitators between $1,800-$2,500 in return for CDL exam answers and assistance through the DMV processes. Fraud schemes included the use of pencils with encoded miniaturized test answers, the use of a Bluetooth headset as a communication device to relay CDL test answers, and the use of an external test-taker positioned nearby to take the exams.
“Undercover law enforcement personnel, deployed as CDL applicants, met with key targets on multiple occasions at various DMV centers. In many instances, the in-person meetings included payment of fees to facilitators.”
