USAO, Middle District of Florida - Press Release

Summary

On July 2, 2015, Ellariy Medvednik, Natalia Dontsova, Adrian Salari, and Clarence Davis, were indicted in U.S. District Court, Orlando, Florida, on conspiracy charges related to the unlawful production of Florida driver licenses and commercial drivers’ licenses (CDLs).

This investigation was based on information received from the Florida Highway Patrol and the Orange County Florida Tax Collector’s Office after discovering a large number of people applying for CDLs using the same residential address in Seminole County. Over the past two years nearly 400 subjects had used this same address, which is registered as the principal place of business for Larex Incorporated, a trucking school owned and operated by Medvednik.

The indictment alleges that Larex marketed itself towards speakers of the Russian language and charged students approximately $1,800 to $5,000 for services in obtaining a Florida CDL. Medvednik, Dontsova, and Salari helped students cheat on the CDL written exam by utilizing covert communications to supply answers to the students while they were taking the tests. They also knowingly provided false certifications and other documents to students to satisfy Florida CDL residency requirements. Larex used the same CDL tester for the road skills test, Clarence Davis, a third-party testing contractor. Davis allegedly passed hundreds of students even if they committed errors that should have resulted in automatic failures. Davis also passed students knowing that they did not understand English, even though students are required to understand that language in order to qualify for a CDL. Davis was paid an extra $75 for each Larex student he passed.

We are conducting this investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations.

Note: Indictments, informations, and criminal complaints are only accusations by the Government. All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.