Summary

On July 26, Marta Carina Pinto, a former DL examiner for the Florida Division of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) pled guilty in U.S. District Court in Miami, FL to conspiring to produce and transfer unlawful State of Florida DLs and commercial driver's licenses (CDLs). Using her position at DHSMV, the state agency responsible for issuing driver's licenses, Pinto fraudulently processed approximately 80 to 100 DLs and CDLs for individuals not lawfully entitled to receive them. Pinto designated that license applicants were U.S. citizens when they were believed to be illegal aliens. Pinto received between $700 and $1,000 for each license produced. Pinto's plea ultimately stems from a 2003 household goods moving fraud case in which Pinto and a middleman were identified as allegedly assisting many Israeli and foreign nationals to obtain CDLs and DLs. A 17-year employee of DHSMV, Pinto resigned in September 2005 and is scheduled for sentencing on October 4, 2006. The ongoing investigation is being conducted jointly with the FBI and DHS/ICE, with assistance from the Florida Highway Patrol.