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I.D. fraud alleged at MVA
Friday, Feb. 27, 2009
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A St. Mary's County man used his promotion last year at a state Motor Vehicle Administration office to fraudulently issue identification cards to people who did not have required U.S. documents, court papers allege.
Felix A. Pinto Jr., 21, of California conducted the alleged scheme "apparently as an advocate for the Hispanic community," St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office detectives wrote in charging papers, and there was no evidence that he committed the alleged offenses to receive financial or personal gain.
Pinto was charged through a summons with four offenses of making a false entry into public records, between May and July of last year. A conviction for the misdemeanor offense carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison.
As a customer agent at the MVA's Loveville office, Pinto assisted eight people in obtaining driver's licenses or other identification cards, when he fraudulently entered data into the agency's computer system stating that they had birth certificates or other identification records, according to a charges application from the investigation by sheriff's office detective David Alexander. "As a result of the defendant's actions," the detective wrote in charging papers, "each of the … witnesses received official Maryland identification, which could then be utilized in Maryland and in other states [and] jurisdictions to fraudulently obtain drivers licenses and other official documentation."
Pinto's supervisors quickly observed or otherwise learned of the alleged activity, including one man receiving a copy of a written driver's test that he used to get a learner's permit, court papers state. That man later tried to get a permanent license at the MVA office in Waldorf.
The beneficiaries of Pinto's alleged actions told police that they were not aware that a fraud had occurred, according to charging documents.
Buel Young, an MVA spokesman, said the agency has a "zero tolerance" of fraud activity. Pinto's employment with the agency ended on July 29 of last year, the spokesperson said.
