Former Maryland MVA employee pleads guilty in conspiracy to issue fraudulent driver’s licenses

A former worker of the Maryland Motor Automobile Administration pleaded responsible Friday to issuing fraudulent driver’s licenses in trade for cost, the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned.

Marion Rose Payne, 55, of Harwood in Anne Arundel County pleaded responsible to conspiracy to supply and switch identification paperwork with out lawful authority. She faces a most of 15 years in jail and should pay no less than $25,000, which prosecutors mentioned she accepted in trade for the licenses.

Payne’s lawyer declined to touch upon her plea.

Payne conspired with two others to challenge greater than 276 fraudulent Maryland driver’s licenses from no less than July 2015 to March 2016, based on a information launch from the workplace of U.S. Lawyer Erek L. Barron. Payne and an unnamed co-conspirator have been staff on the MVA Largo department. They labored with Warner Antonio Portillo, 36, of Manassas, Virginia, to challenge these driver’s licenses, the workplace mentioned.

“Portillo and others met with potential Maryland driver’s license candidates who have been prepared to pay cash to acquire a driver’s license illegally, sometimes as a result of the candidates have been aliens with out authorized standing in the US or have been in any other case unable to acquire a lawfully issued driver’s license,” based on the discharge.

The candidates paid between $800 and $5,000 in money for every driver’s license. Portillo not solely transported these people to the Largo department, the place he directed them to Payne or the co-conspirator’s workstations, but additionally supplied the cast documentation wanted to acquire the motive force’s license.

These embrace tax info, proof of Maryland residence and different identification paperwork, the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned. 4 Virginia driver’s licenses and a financial institution assertion that belonged to actual individuals have been used a number of instances.

Portillo paid Payne no less than $25,000 in money and presents, and these exchanges typically occurred within the car parking zone of the MVA Largo department. Payne is scheduled for sentencing Aug. 3. Portillo beforehand pleaded responsible to his position within the conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing.