NEWS RELEASE
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA
Julia C. Dudley Acting United States Attorney Brian McGinn Public Affairs Specialist |
BB&T Building 310 1st Street, S.W., Room 906 Roanoke, Virginia 24011 (540) 857-2974 FAX (540) 857-2179 |
September 22, 2008
OHIO BMV EMPLOYEE PLEADS GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY
Acting United States Attorney Julia C. Dudley announced today that Michelle Eckerman, age 27, of Canal Winchester, Ohio, pled guilty in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Charlottesville today to actions related to her involvement in a conspiracy to produce and distribute fraudulent Ohio identification cards.
Eckerman, an employee of the Scarborough Boulevard Deputy Register’s Office for the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles [BMV] in Columbus, Ohio, was involved in a conspiracy that used authentic, but fraudulently obtained, Puerto Rican birth certificates and matching Social Security numbers to secure authentic, but fraudulently obtained Ohio identification documents. Eckerman used her position with the BMV to falsely process over 200 applications for Ohio identification cards using Puerto Rican Social Security numbers.
“The United States Attorney’s Office places a great deal of emphasis on prosecuting those who engage in identity fraud as well as those who assist in perpetrating identity theft and identity fraud,” Acting United States Attorney Julia C. Dudley said today. “Through her employment with the Ohio BMV, Ms. Eckerman was at a key juncture in preventing identity fraud. She single handedly processed over 200 applications for identification cards, a large number of those applications resulted in the issuance of identity cards to individuals who had entered the United States illegally.”
The defendant, along with several co-defendants, was indicted in March 2008 and charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to traffic identity documents. Today in District Court she pled guilty to one count of conspiracy.
According to evidence presented at today’s hearing by Assistant United States Attorney C. Patrick Hogeboom, III, Eckerman was employed at the Scarborough BMV where her duties included, but were not limited to, the processing of applications for identity documents.
Illegal immigrants, who previously purchased authentic but fraudulently obtained Puerto Rican documents from defendant Edwin Mendez, were transported to the Columbus, Ohio home of Jose Gutierrez-Ramirez and Christina Cheatham by defendant Jairo Gomez and told they would be transported to the Scarborough Boulevard BMV and given further instructions by Gutierrez-Ramirez.
Once at the BMV, Gutierrez-Ramirez and Cheatham would instruct the illegal immigrants to go to Eckerman and defendant Nekia Mack-Fuller, a BMV employee, for assistance in obtaining identification documents. Eckerman and Mack-Fuller routinely produced Ohio identification cards for the illegal immigrants and were given “tips” by Gutierrez-Ramirez for their assistance.
Today in District Court, Eckerman admitted that the Scarborough BMV was aware that “tips” were being provided by Gutierrez-Ramirez for processing identity card applications, though it was not reported to the Ohio Director of Public Safety investigators and no record of the amount of each “tip” was maintained or reported to the Internal Revenue Service.
During an October 4, 2008 undercover operation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents, Eckerman was observed advising defendant Cheatham that an individual applying for an identity card needed to re-sign the application using the name contained on the Puerto Rican birth certificate, which was being presented as an identity source document, because he had signed the wrong name.
The maximum penalty faced by the defendant is 5 years imprisonment and/or a fine of $250,000.
The investigation of the case was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Department of Labor Office of Labor, Racketeering and Fraud Investigation, the Virginia Attorney General’s Office and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations for the United States Attorney’s Office, Western District of Virginia . Assistant United States Attorney C. Patrick Hogeboom, III, will prosecute the case for the United States. Mr. Hogeboom will be assisted by a Special Assistant from Immigration and Custom Enforcement Assistant Counsel and Commonwealth of Virginia Assistant Attorney General Phillip Figura.