ID Theft Ring Centered in DMV, Feds Say

MANHATTAN (CN) - Two New York State DMV employees face federal charges of selling more than 200 driver's licenses and other documents in an identity-theft scheme that netted more than $1 million. Five other people are charged with belonging to the ring and 15 people face separate charges of buying the stolen identities, federal prosecutors said.

The corrupt Department of Motor Vehicles employees were led by Wilch Dewalt aka Sharrieff Sabazz Muhammad ala G aka Mark Fowler aka License Man, prosecutors said. He is accused of being the leader and "broker," who "in exchange for a fee of between $7,000 and $10,000, served as a one-stop shop for fraudulent identification documents, enabling more than 200 people to obtain DMV Documents in stolen identities," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in announcing the busts.

"Each customer had only to provide Dewalt with his or her fee and a photograph. Dewalt then supplied his customers with a complete 'package' of identification documents, including some genuine and some fraudulent, that they then used to obtain a DMV document in a stolen identity. The package of documents usually included a birth certificate, Social Security card, employee identification card, pay stub, W-2, and bank card. Dewalt also provided a bogus certification purporting to show that his customers had completed a driving school course, and even offered a completed written learner's permit examination so that the customer did not actually have to take the test."

Dewalt is accused of coordinating the fraudulent DMV paperwork with Robin Jones-Woodson, of the DMV's Yonkers office.

Among the people Dewalt is accused of "serving" as customers was an undercover agent who told him he was on the U.S. no-fly list, who said he needed an enhanced driver's list so he could board an airplane to Canada and then Pakistan.

"Dewalt agreed, in exchange for a fee, to obtain an enhanced driver's license in a fraudulent identity for the undercover [agent]" prosecutors said. He could face more than 40 years in prison if convicted of all charges.

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