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Office of Inspector General |
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| Title: | Florida Man Pleads Guilty to Accepting Bribes in CDL Probe |
| Date: | July 23, 2002 |
| Type: | Investigation |
| Summary: | Jorge Carranza, of Lauder Hill, FL, an employee of 3S Trucking, Inc., a Florida-based truck-driving school and state-certified third-party testing facility, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Chicago, IL, for accepting bribes to help unqualified truck drivers obtain commercial driver's licenses (CDLs). Carranza and his partners, Lech Rzdzian and Felix Mamedov, were charged with helping unqualified eastern European and Russian CDL applicants fraudulently obtain Florida CDLs, which the applicants typically exchanged for CDLs issued in Illinois and other states. Rzdzian and Mamedov found CDL applicants in Chicago and drove them to Florida to obtain their CDLs. The applicants paid Rzdzian and Mamedov $2,000, of which, Carranza would receive $400 for each applicant he fraudulently passed on the practical skills driving test. Many CDL applicants never got behind the wheel during testing. This case is part of Operation Safe Road, a task force investigation involving OIG, the FBI, IRS/CID, Postal Inspection Service, and Illinois State Police. |