A group of four CDL testers have been arrested as a result of a joint FBI, Homeland Security, DOT investigation and have been charged multiple felonies including conspiracy to aid and abet the unlawful production of commercial driver’s licenses.
Ellariy Medvednik, Natalia Dontsova, and Adrian Salari were all affiliated with Larex, Inc., a CDL school in Florida that is known for working with Russian-speaking students. They advertised to Russian speakers online and charged $2,000 to issue CDLs to out-of-state students.
Florida requires CDL applicants to be state residents, but students would travel to Florida and the scammers would provide them with false residency documentation. Then the scammers would provide students with the answers to the written exams.
Once the time came for the skills test, all the students were sent to Clarence Davis, a state-authorized third-party tester, who was paid an additional $75 per test to pass students who might otherwise have failed.
According to the investigation, more than 600 people received their CDLs from Larex and used Davis as a CDL tester.
If the four scammers are convicted of all charges, they will each face a maximum of 30 years in prison.
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Source: gobytrucknews, truckinginfo
Image Source: NYTimes
Bob says
They need to retest all of those people that have gotten there CDLs from them and make sure they can read and write English .
Kenneth Sawyer says
I agree no matter how long someone has held a DL from this ” school” they should be retested
Jraulpilot says
About time……! Keep up the good work and keep going to the “next case”. Probabilities are that HS/DOT will find that there are a few thousand CDL drivers operating “Rigs” under the same conditions. Need to expand the investigation NATIONWIDE.
Infosaur says
Nah, it’s just the Chicago “schools” using their “connections” to get rid of the “competition”.
mike says
When I did my CDL testing in the 1990 s there was a similar issue with state employees, I was fortunate that the guy was on vacation at that testing facility and I had a stricter tester . They did have to retest a lot of them and yanked license of others that refused to retest. I worked for a trucking company that I believe was doing the something similar by training and passing drivers that I had witnessed were lacking in practical skills to drive safely. I think it’s due to the implementation of safety related equipment like anti rollover, anti collision, speed limiters,and related technology. To put unqualified drivers to haul freight. The problem with that is that technology is unreliable and fails . With out qualified drivers when technology fails to work properly deaths will result and the driver will be held responsible due to not being trained properly.
J Ossowski says
I spent almost two years as an instructor at a school in Detroit, Michigan. I tested a lot of students who didn’t pass. I figured I’d be on the road with some of them and I wasn’t going to pass someone I wouldn’t be comfortable with while driving my pickup and them in a big truck. I will admit I had a few students who made me want to give up my license completely. Another instructor passed them.
Laz says
not my fault the school ran scams- but I wrote and passed my test. working now- no time for retest- too bad so sad
(Note: I did not go to the school, but illustrating a point)
RM says
The way I see this. You now have over 600 potential licensed killers roaming the highways driving an 80,000 pound weapon. This is just one of how many outfits doing this and in the end we as professional drivers will take the legislative hits for it.
100500 says
This is 600 more “drivers” get our job .