The defendant pled guilty to one count involving interstate and foreign commerce
Rommer Valdez, 38, plead guilty this month to one count of conspiring to produce a false document affecting interstate and foreign commerce. Since the count involves Federal law, the case was brought in the U.S. District Court in Boston.
A clerk for the RMV branch in Watertown, Mr. Valdez was part of a scheme in which ineligible customers were surreptitiously led by Mr. Valdez and his cohorts through the RMV process in order to obtain authentic Massachusetts identification documents.
According to authorities, during a two year period from between December 2010 through December 2012, Mr. Valdez and his co-conspirators created an intricate scheme in which Mr. Valdez’s cohorts would illegally obtain the identification documents of real Massachusetts citizens which were then vetted by Mr. Valdez using his access to the RMV systems. As an RMV clerk, Mr. Valdez’s legitimate duties and responsibilities included verifying that an applicant’s identity and documents presented at the Registry were “…accurate, valid, and sufficient.”
Once the fraudulently-procurred information was pre-screened by Mr. Valdez to ensure that the information would pass a Registry check, the fraud ring’s customer were then sent to the RMV (albeit not always Mr. Valdez’s station, in order to obtain a valid RMV document with the fraudulent identity.
Other certain customers also were directly sent to Mr. Valdez’s station at the Watertown RMV. Apparently, when an earmarked customer had been sent, Mr. Valdez would signal to that specific customers to approach his station in order to submit the customer’s fraudulent paperwork. Mr. Valdez would then process that application and issue the appropriate RMV identification document.
The former RMV clerk would also go so far as to permit his fraudulent customer, or someone else aiding that customer, to take the required RMV tests, all under the false identity presented. As a result, Mr. Valdez knowingly pre-checked and accepted numerous presentations of false proof of identity from multiple fraudulent customers in return for illegal payments that he received for this work.
Mr. Valdez, who was originally charged in May of this year, will be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young on Oct. 27, 2015. Under Federal law, the statute used to sentence Mr. Valdez provides “…a sentence of no greater than five years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000 or twice the gain or loss, whichever is greatest, and forfeiture.” In general, the actual sentences for federal crimes are less than the maximum penalties.
