For the third time, a criminal enterprise of selling drivers’ licenses out of a Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles office has been uncovered. This one occurred in Springfield, with previous cases prosecuted against employees in the Tysons Corner and Richmond offices. There are two contrasting stories on the latest case, one from Jerry Markon of the Washington Post and one from Paul Bradley of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Bradley concentrates on how the DMV employees operated the sale. Markon casts a critical eye on DMV:
DMV spokeswoman Pam Goheen called the arrests “unfortunate and disappointing” and said the “vast majority of DMV employees are honest and hardworking.”
Goheen could not explain how two similar scams might have been carried out so close together in two Northern Virginia DMV offices. But she said the agency has stepped up its enforcement and auditing efforts. Since 2002, she said, DMV “document verifiers” have double-checked every application processed by customer service staffers.
“It’s two sets of eyes on every transaction,” Goheen said. “There is a heightened awareness of the importance of a driver’s license.”
Most reporters might have stopped there, but Markon has researched this case:
Yet court documents said the latest alleged scam was uncovered not by DMV but by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security. After a six-month investigation that included the FBI and the DMV, officials are alleging that Francisco Martinez issued the licenses and falsified DMV records to make it appear that applicants had surrendered valid licenses from other states.
The DMV might still have some work to do on that “two sets of eyes” process.
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