The Fraud Factory. Corrupt CDL Programs That Put Killers Behind the Wheel. Part 1.

A two-decade investigation reveals 6,000+ fraudulent licenses, at least 13 deaths, and a justice system that let most walk free

George Ryan died peacefully in his Kankakee, Illinois, home on May 2, 2025, at age 91. The former governor had spent his final years as something of a folk hero to death penalty opponents, writing books and giving speeches about criminal justice reform. He’d served just over five years in federal prison for corruption charges, released in 2013, he lived another 12 years as a free man.

The Reverend Scott Willis and his wife Janet, meanwhile, still grieve the six children they lost in 1994 when a truck driver with a fraudulently obtained CDL dropped debris that caused their van to explode in flames on a Milwaukee interstate. The driver, Ricardo Guzman, had received his license through the very system Ryan oversaw as Illinois Secretary of State.

Ryan apologized before he died. The Willis children are still dead.

The wildest part, We have no idea where most of the other convicted CDL fraudsters ended up. No database tracks them. No system prevents them from working in transportation under different identities or in different states. The fraud factory that killed those six children, and at least seven others we can document, is still running, and we can’t even tell you who’s operating it.

After analyzing 24 years of DOT Office of Inspector General investigations, the patterns are insane. Between 2001 and 2025, federal investigators documented systematic corruption in America’s CDL licensing system, resulting in a conservative estimate of over 6,000 fraudulent licenses being issued to unqualified drivers, many of whom couldn’t speak English, had never driven a truck, or, in some cases, had never even taken a road test.

That’s a conservative figure based only on cases that resulted in convictions. The actual number is higher when considering undiscovered schemes and cases that never reached prosecution.

The documented death toll is at least 13 people killed, and hundreds injured. The worst single incident involved Adem Salihovic, who triggered a 74-vehicle pileup in California that killed two people and wounded 51 others. His CDL was obtained through a scheme in which a former Watkins Truck Line supervisor, Frank Catanzarite, admitted to accepting $10,000 in bribes from unqualified truck drivers. Catanzarite pleaded guilty in 2003 and was sentenced to 17 months in prison. He’s been out for over 20 years now. Where is he? Working in transportation again? We don’t know. The system doesn’t track that.

A man who couldn’t pass a legitimate driving test killed two people and injured 51 because corrupt examiners took cash instead of doing their jobs. The examiner who enabled it served less than two years and disappeared back into society.

The Big Three

Operation Safe Road (Illinois/Florida, 2001-2003)

Estimated fraudulent CDLs: 1,000+
Convictions: 41 individuals

This was the big one, the investigation that exposed corruption reaching all the way to the governor’s office. The scheme was breathtaking in its scope. Illinois driving schools recruited Eastern European and Russian immigrants who couldn’t pass legitimate tests. Middlemen charged $800 to $2,000 to transport these applicants to Florida, where corrupt testers at 3S Trucking, Inc. would pass them without testing. Many applicants “never got behind the wheel during testing.”

It got worse. Back in Illinois, Secretary of State employees were selling fake CDLs for $500 to $1,500 and using the proceeds to buy raffle tickets for Governor George Ryan’s political campaign. Scott Fawell, Ryan’s chief of staff, forced state employees to sell raffle tickets by tying their annual pay raises to ticket sales. The employees found it easier to issue fraudulent CDLs and use that money to purchase the tickets themselves. At least $170,000 in illegal CDL money flowed directly into Ryan’s campaign coffers.

Where are they now? George Ryan served 6.5 years in federal prison (2007-2013) and died at home in 2025. Scott Fawell also served 6.5 years. Richard Juliano, Ryan’s deputy chief of staff who turned government witness, received four years’ probation, three months of home detention, 350 hours of community service, and a $10,000 fine in exchange for his cooperation. That cooperation came after Juliano saw the FBI investigation closing in and made “the decision pretty expeditiously to cooperate,” as he later told an audience at the University of Pittsburgh law school.

The other 38 individuals convicted in Operation Safe Road? We have no idea where most of them are. No database tracks them. Many served probation or short sentences and then vanished back into the workforce, potentially returning to transportation.

Larex Incorporated (Florida, 2014-2016)

Estimated fraudulent CDLs: 400-500
Convictions: 4 individuals

Owner Ellariy Medvednik ran a Russian-language trucking school that charged students $1,800 to $5,000 for guaranteed CDLs. The operation was sophisticated, covert cameras and wireless earpieces fed answers during written tests, fake residency documents satisfied state requirements, and a cooperative third-party tester passed everyone regardless of ability.

The Florida Highway Patrol discovered hundreds of applicants using the same fake address, Larex’s business location. The state ultimately sent letters to over 2,000 CDL holders who had used compromised testers, requiring them to retake the test within 60 days or face cancellation.

Where are they now? Medvednik was sentenced in January 2016 to 12 months and one day in prison, one year of supervised release, and fined $30,000. He would have been released in early 2017. That was eight years ago. Where is he now? Unknown.

Natalia Dontsova was sentenced in December 2015 to 10 months in prison, followed by one year of supervised release and released in 2016. Current whereabouts: unknown.

Adrian Salari pleaded guilty in July 2016. His sentencing information isn’t in the public record. Current whereabouts: unknown.

The investigation revealed that as many as 500 students obtained fraudulent Florida CDLs through this single operation. Florida identified the problem. Florida sent warning letters, but there’s no follow-up data on how many of those 2,000 drivers actually retested, how many simply abandoned their CDLs, and how many continued driving anyway.

TTT Truck Driver’s School (Georgia, 1998-2004)

Estimated fraudulent CDLs: 623
Convictions: 2 individuals

Owner Thomas Duke and third-party examiner Terence Haley falsified the skills tests for 623 students over six years. Georgia required all affected drivers to retest. Of those who showed up for legitimate testing, only 142 passed, a failure rate of 77%.

481 unqualified drivers had been operating commercial vehicles on American highways, some for years, before they were caught.

Where are they now? Duke was sentenced in October 2004 to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay $64,691 in restitution to the Georgia Department of Motor Vehicle Safety and to several former students. He would have been released around 2008, 17 years ago. Current whereabouts: deceased.

Terence Haley was sentenced in August 2004 to five years’ probation and ordered to pay $15,960 in restitution to compensate the state of Georgia for retesting costs. His probation ended in 2009. Current whereabouts, we believe he is driving for a national carrier.

TTT Truck Driver’s Training School, the corporation, was also convicted and sentenced to five years’ probation. The school is presumably defunct, but we don’t know if Duke or Haley ever worked in transportation again. Nothing prevents them from doing so.

The Recent Cases. Nothing Has Changed

Massachusetts State Police CDL Scandal (2019-2025)

Just this year, we’re still prosecuting the same schemes. Former Massachusetts State Police Sergeant Gary Cederquist, 59, of Stoughton, was convicted in May 2025 of 48 counts, including conspiracy to commit extortion, honest services mail fraud, and falsification of records. Between February 2019 and January 2023, Cederquist ran the State Police CDL Unit and arranged for at least three dozen applicants to receive passing scores regardless of whether they passed or even took the test.

The conspirators used the code word “golden” or “golden handshake” to identify applicants receiving special treatment. Text messages recovered by investigators showed Cederquist describing applicants as “horrible,” “brain dead,” “an idiot,” “no idea what he’s doing,” and “should have failed about 10 times already,” yet he gave them passing scores anyway.

What did Cederquist get in exchange? A new driveway valued at over $10,000, a snowblower worth nearly $2,000, a $750 granite post and mailbox, and thousands of dollars worth of premium bottled water, coffee, tea, and candy (Twizzlers and Swedish Fish, specifically) delivered by Eric Mathison, who worked for a water company that needed CDLs for its delivery drivers.

Where are they now? Cederquist’s sentencing has been delayed to October 14, 2025, as his attorney is currently defending a murder suspect in another trial. He faces up to 20 years in prison on multiple counts.

Eric Mathison was sentenced in September 2025 to one year and one day in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He’ll be back on the streets by 2026.

Former troopers Calvin Butner and Perry Mendes were sentenced in August 2025. Butner received three months in prison, 12 months of supervised release with the first three months in home confinement, and a $900 special assessment. Mendes received one month in prison, 12 months of supervised release with the first two months in home confinement, and a $600 special assessment.

Scott Camara, a commercial driving school instructor, was sentenced in September 2025 to one month of incarceration, one year of supervised release, and a $200 special assessment.

These are slap-on-the-wrist sentences for putting unqualified drivers behind the wheel of vehicles that can kill entire families. Within a year or two, all of them will be free, with no system in place to prevent them from returning to work in transportation again.

Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles (2020-2024)

In August 2025, a federal grand jury indicted Jenay Davis and Shakira Millien (both Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles employees), Christopher Burns, Jonathan Parsons, and Marline Roberts (all third-party testers), and Mahmoud Alhattab (a restaurant owner) for conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, honest services wire fraud, and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.

The indictment alleges that between approximately August 2020 and February 2024, the defendants conspired to defraud Louisiana’s CDL program through a scheme to solicit and accept bribes. As a result, numerous individuals obtained CDLs without meeting either federal or state requirements.

This case is still pending. But ask yourself: if convicted, what will their sentences be? Probation? A year? Two? And then what? They’ll be back in society with no tracking, no monitoring, no system to flag them if they attempt to work in transportation again.

State-by-State. Where Corruption Runs Deepest

The geographic distribution of fraud reveals systemic vulnerabilities in certain states:

High-Frequency Offender States:

Illinois (8 major cases). The epicenter of CDL fraud, culminating in Operation Safe Road. Problems included Secretary of State office corruption, multiple driving schools, and systematic bribery schemes that reached the governor’s office.

Florida (7 major cases). A pipeline state for fraud operations. Non-residents would obtain Florida CDLs through corrupt testers, then exchange them for licenses in their home states. The warm climate and large immigrant populations made Florida a target-rich environment for fraud rings.

California (7 major cases). Department of Motor Vehicles employees in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Tracy, Hollywood, and other locations accepted bribes to alter database records. DMV employee Shawana Denise Harris was convicted in November 2022 for fraudulently updating test scores for at least 185 applicants, earning approximately $277,500 in bribes. She was sentenced to five years in prison and will be released around 2027. Then what?

Massachusetts (6 major cases, 2019-2025). Recent investigations revealed State Police troopers conspiring with driving school instructors to give passing scores to applicants who failed or never took tests. The “golden handshake” scheme operated for years before being exposed.

New York (5 major cases). Multiple DMV testing centers in New York City operated fraud schemes involving security guards, external test-takers, and elaborate cheating devices including pencils with encoded answers and Bluetooth headsets. Facilitators charged $1,800 to $2,500 per applicant.

Moderate-Frequency Offender States:
Mississippi (5 cases), Texas (4 cases), Colorado (3 cases), Pennsylvania (3 cases), Virginia (3 cases)

Who’s Selling Out?

Third-Party Examiners (35+ cases).The weakest link in the system. Private contractors authorized to conduct CDL skills tests repeatedly accepted bribes ranging from $70 to $2,000 per applicant. Some examiners never even showed up to test sites, they just pre-signed score sheets.

Neal Conaway, an independent third-party CDL examiner in Ohio, pleaded guilty in August 2001 to fraudulently representing that he had properly tested 248 CDL applications. A normal pre-trip inspection and road test takes nearly an hour to complete; Conaway’s applicants completed their test in about 10 minutes. He’s been out of the system for over 20 years. Where is he now?

DMV/State Employees (25+ cases. Government workers with database access sold passing scores, altered records, and issued licenses to people who never tested. California DMV employees were particularly prolific, with some responsible for hundreds of fraudulent licenses each.

Walter R. Campbell, a former driver’s license examiner for the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, pleaded guilty in August 2003 to producing false driver’s licenses for illegal foreign nationals. In exchange for money or other compensation (like paying his electric bill or taking him to lunch), Campbell processed about 180 license applications from 1999 through 2002 for Turkish and Russian nationals without valid immigration status. He estimated that approximately 100 Maryland driver’s licenses were issued due to his efforts, about 25 of them CDLs. Where is Campbell now? Unknown.

Driving Schools (20+ cases). Commercial driving schools operated as fraud factories, guaranteeing CDLs regardless of ability. They provided cheating equipment, fake residency documents, and coordinated with corrupt testers.

In September 2012, Ying Wai Phillip Ng and Pui Kuen Ng, operators of commercial driving school N&Y Professional Service Line in Brooklyn, pleaded guilty to mail fraud conspiracy. Between approximately 2001 and 2012, they assisted customers by providing answers during the written New York State CDL examination using covert camera equipment and pager systems. An estimated 500 CDL applicants passed the exam as a result of this scheme. The Ngs agreed to forfeit approximately $125,000 in cash and $50,000 in seized property. They’ve been out since approximately 2013-2014.

Law Enforcement (4 cases). Even cops got in on it. Massachusetts State Police troopers gave preferential treatment to fellow troopers and water company employees in exchange for free inventory. Mississippi Highway Patrol employees created fake test scores for applicants who never took tests.

In October 2012, Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Joseph L. Rigby, Mississippi Department of Public Safety, Highway Patrol Director of Driver Services, was sentenced to three years of probation and fined $3,000. Rene Morris, former DPS clerk, was sentenced to two years of probation and fined $1,000. The investigation disclosed that Rigby, Morris, and several Mississippi State troopers assisted CDL applicants by creating false CDL test scores, enabling applicants to obtain CDLs and operational hazardous materials and passenger endorsements without meeting required minimum state and federal testing mandates. Where are Rigby and Morris today?

The Immigration Connection and The Parallel Underground Economy

The data tells us approximately 40-45% of documented cases involved foreign nationals or immigration fraud. This isn’t about demonizing immigrants, it’s about demonstrating how fraud operations specifically target vulnerable populations who couldn’t meet legitimate requirements.

Common patterns included:

• Schemes specifically targeting non-English speakers who couldn’t pass legitimate tests

• Common nationalities involved: Russian, Eastern European, Cuban, Peruvian, Mexican, Indian (Punjab/Sikh communities), Pakistani

• Several cases involved illegal residents obtaining CDLs with fraudulent documents

• At least three cases resulted in deportation orders

• Multiple Maryland cases involved selling CDLs to “illegal foreign nationals” and “Turks and Russians who did not have valid immigration status”

Notable cases:

Maria de los Santos, an illegal resident from Mexico, pleaded guilty in February 2003 to identification fraud. While working at the now-defunct New Delhi Driving School in Illinois, she admitted to earning $100,000 from 1999 through 2001 by helping illegal residents obtain false identifications. She sold fraudulent Social Security cards and Mexican birth certificates, which illegal residents then used to obtain valid Illinois driver’s licenses. She was sentenced in May 2003 to 12 months in jail and a $30,000 fine. Released in 2004. Current whereabouts: Serving 75 years for murder in a different Texas case.

Mohan Thapa of Baltimore pleaded guilty in January 2003 to producing fake identification documents and conspiring to use the mail to racketeer. In exchange for bribes, Thapa conspired with a Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration employee to sell and distribute fraudulent IDs to foreign nationals. The case also involved a local driving school allegedly bribing MVA test examiners to pass unqualified applicants on CDL tests. Where is Thapa now? Unknown.

Francisco Palacios, also known as Fredy Molina, a former driver for a Virginia trucking company and an illegal alien, pleaded guilty in August 2005 to presenting a counterfeit CDL to a law enforcement officer. He was sentenced to 10 weeks in prison and was ordered to be deported. Was he deported? Did he return? He did and was beheaded trying to cross back into the United States.

Flor Consuelo Del Carmen Caballero Bernabe, a Peruvian citizen, was charged in August 2025 with immigration fraud offenses. According to court documents, Caballero Bernabe traveled to the U.S. in 2000 on a non-immigrant visa and subsequently began using the identity and social security number of a U.S. citizen to reside, work, and maintain a Connecticut CDL. She used the fraudulent identity and SSN to apply for a U.S. passport in 2005, renewed it in 2015, and used it to travel internationally. She allegedly made false statements on FMCSA-administered medical examination forms to maintain the CDL. She operated commercial motor vehicles for FMCSA-regulated entities for 25 years under a stolen identity. The case was only discovered in 2022 when the actual owner of the identity applied for Social Security Disability benefits and SSA informed them that someone in Connecticut had been earning income using their SSN.

This case is pending. If convicted, what happens after sentencing? Deportation, presumably. But what about the 25 years she spent driving commercially? What about all the other identity thieves still out there doing the same thing right now?

The Schemes

Analyzing two decades of fraud reveals consistent methods:

Ghost Testing (47% of cases). Applicants paid for passing scores without taking tests. Examiners pre-signed score sheets or submitted electronic records for people who never showed up.

Database Manipulation (23% of cases). DMV employees with system access altered electronic records to show passing scores. This method was particularly prevalent in California, where multiple DMV employees in different offices independently discovered they could make hundreds of thousands of dollars by changing a few database fields.

Abbreviated Testing (18% of cases). Examiners conducted incomplete or shortened tests. Neal Conaway’s 10-minute “tests” in Ohio epitomize this approach. A legitimate CDL skills test takes nearly an hour, consisting of a pre-trip inspection, basic control skills, and a road test. Abbreviated testing skipped most or all of these components.

Technology-Enabled Cheating (12% of cases). Hidden cameras transmitted test questions to off-site accomplices who fed answers back through wireless earpieces. Pencils with encoded answers. Bluetooth headsets. The sophistication increased over time as technology improved.

Price Points Revealed Market Segmentation:

• Low-end ($70-$400): Individual examiner bribes, typically for simple pass/fail decisions

• Mid-range ($800-$2,000): Full-service fraud operations including transport to testing sites, fake documents, and guaranteed passage

• High-end ($2,500-$5,000): Premium packages with guarantees, often including fake residency documents, cheating equipment, and coordinated testing

What Happens When You’re Caught? Not Much.

The penalties varied wildly, revealing an inconsistent justice system that rarely imposed serious consequences:

License Revocation: When states discover fraud, they typically cancel the fraudulent CDLs and require retesting. However, many drivers simply disappeared rather than retaking the test. In cases where retesting occurred, failure rates ranged from 60% to 77%, confirming that these drivers should never have been licensed in the first place.

Criminal Sentences Show a Broken System:

• Examiners/Facilitators: Ranged from probation to 51 months prison (median: 12-18 months)

• DMV Employees: Ranged from probation to 60 months prison (median: 24-36 months)

• School Owners: Ranged from 12 months to 39 months prison (median: 18-24 months)

• Applicants: Rarely prosecuted; most faced only license revocation

Financial Penalties Were Often Minimal:

• Fines: $500 to $30,000 (median: $5,000)

• Restitution: Up to $64,691 (Georgia school owner Thomas Duke)

• Forfeitures: Up to $226,620 (Florida facilitator Taras Chabanovych)

Compare these penalties to the damage caused. The Willis family lost six children. Adem Salihovic’s 74-vehicle pileup killed two and injured 51. Seven Alabama prison guards died in a crash involving Devasko Lewis, who was driving under an Imminent Hazard Out-of-Service Order. Yet the people who enabled these tragedies served, on average, less than two years in prison.

The Gap in Justice: While organizers faced federal charges, individual drivers who purchased fake licenses rarely faced criminal prosecution. They lost their CDLs, but many had already been driving commercially for years, sometimes causing fatal accidents before being caught. And there’s no follow-up data on how many simply obtained new fraudulent licenses after their old ones were revoked.

The Fatal Consequences We Know About (And the Ones We Don’t)

In the documented cases, we know about at least 13 deaths and hundreds of injuries directly linked to fraudulent CDL holders. But those are just the cases where investigators could draw a direct line between the fraud and the crash.

How many other accidents involved drivers with questionable credentials? How many deaths occurred before the fraud schemes were uncovered? We’ll never know, as we don’t systematically track this data.

What we do know:

The Willis Children (1994, Illinois): Six children, Benjamin (13), Joseph (11), Samuel (6), Hank (5), Elizabeth (3), and Peter (3 months), burned to death when their van exploded after being struck by debris from a truck. Driver Ricardo Guzman’s CDL was allegedly obtained through the corrupt Illinois system that later brought down Governor George Ryan.

The 74-Vehicle Pileup (1998, California): Adem Salihovic triggered a massive chain-reaction crash that killed two people and injured 51. Salihovic had obtained his CDL through Frank Catanzarite at Watkins Motor Lines, who admitted to taking bribes from unqualified drivers. Catanzarite served 17 months. Salihovic’s CDL was fraudulent. Two people are dead.

The Family of Four (2004, Tennessee): Nasko Nazov, an Illinois resident holding a fraudulent Wisconsin CDL, caused an accident in Tennessee that resulted in the death of a family of four. When questioned by federal grand jury investigators about the Wisconsin CDL fraud scheme, Nazov lied under oath. He was sentenced in October 2005 to 10 months in prison for lying to investigators. After completing his sentence, he was transferred to Tennessee authorities to face vehicular homicide charges. Where is Nazov now? Unknown.

The Alabama Prison Guards (2008): Devasko Lewis, doing business as Lewis Trucking Company/DDL Transport/DL Transport, was placed under an Imminent Hazard Order to cease all operations in October 2008 due to serious violations discovered during a compliance review. The review was conducted after a fatality crash in Alabama that killed seven State of Alabama prison guards. Lewis continued operating in violation of the order. He was sentenced in August 2012 to six months incarceration, followed by 12 months supervised release, and ordered to pay a $3,000 fine. Where is Lewis now? Unknown.

Multiple other cases involved drivers who couldn’t understand English attempting to operate 80,000-pound vehicles on interstate highways. How many near-misses occurred that we never heard about? How many minor crashes where the driver’s fraudulent credentials were never discovered?

Systemic Failure. Why This Keeps Happening

This is about a broken system with insufficient oversight and perverse incentives that guarantee continued corruption.

Why Third-Party Testing Failed: States outsourced testing to cut costs, but created an industry with every incentive to pass applicants and no meaningful oversight. When your business model depends on satisfied customers and repeat referrals from driving schools, failure becomes bad for business. If Examiner A fails 40% of applicants but Examiner B passes everyone, which examiner do driving schools send their students to? The market naturally selects for corruption.

Why DMV Employees Sold Out: Low pay, database access, and minimal supervision created opportunities for corruption. A DMV clerk making $35,000 annually could earn that much in bribes in a few months. Shawana Harris made $277,500 from bribes, more than seven years of legitimate salary. The risk-reward calculation made fraud rational.

Why Driving Schools Became Fraud Factories: When you charge $5,000 for CDL training and students expect guaranteed results, the pressure to deliver becomes intense. Legitimate training couldn’t guarantee passage, some students simply lack the ability to drive safely. But corruption could guarantee passage, creating a competitive advantage for dishonest schools. Legitimate schools either went out of business or became corrupt themselves.

Why Immigration Made It Worse: Non-English speakers faced legitimate barriers to licensing. Federal regulations require CDL applicants to “read and speak the English language sufficiently to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language and to respond to official inquiries.” But fraud operations marketed themselves as solutions to language problems, when in reality they were creating dangerous drivers who couldn’t read road signs, understand dispatchers, or communicate with law enforcement during stops. The Willis family’s six children died because Illinois Secretary of State policy from 1992 to 1995 allowed non-English speaking applicants to take the written test orally in any language with translators they brought themselves, a policy that invited fraud.

Why State Reciprocity Enables Fraud: When Florida issues a CDL to an Illinois resident, Illinois generally accepts that Florida’s testing was legitimate. This interstate reciprocity allows fraud to spread across jurisdictions. Get a fraudulent CDL in Florida, exchange it for an Illinois license, drive in 48 states. It’s license laundering.

The Reform

Despite decades of investigations, federal prosecutions, and documented fatalities, the fundamental structure remains unchanged:

• Third-party testing continues with minimal oversight

• DMV databases remain vulnerable to insider manipulation

• No national CDL fraud database exists to track convicted fraudsters across state lines

• State reciprocity agreements allow license-shopping between jurisdictions

• No system prevents convicted fraudsters from working in transportation after serving their sentences

• Medical certification remains susceptible to fraud (a whole separate scandal)

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration provided “assistance” in most investigations but failed to implement systematic reforms. States cancelled individual licenses but rarely reformed their testing infrastructure. DOT-OIG documented the problem extensively but lacks authority to mandate reforms.

The FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, launched in 2020, demonstrates that national tracking systems are possible. The Clearinghouse is a secure online database that provides real-time information about CDL holders’ drug and alcohol violations. Employers must query the database before hiring and annually for current employees. Drivers with violations must complete a return-to-duty process before operating commercial vehicles again.

It works. The system prevents problem drivers from state-hopping to avoid consequences.

So why isn’t there an equivalent clearinghouse for fraud convictions? Why can’t DMVs query a database before approving third-party examiners? Why can’t states check whether a CDL applicant was previously convicted of fraud in another state? The technology exists. The model exists. What’s missing is the political will.

We Can’t Track Them

After analyzing these cases, I attempted to determine what happened to the convicted individuals. The results are disturbing:

George Ryan: Died May 2025 after living as a free man for 12 years post-release
Scott Fawell: Released around 2009-2010; current whereabouts unknown
Gary Cederquist: Awaiting sentencing October 2025
Eric Mathison: Released 2026 (estimated)
All other Massachusetts defendants: Released 2025-2026

Frank Catanzarite: Released approximately 2004-2005; unknown whereabouts
John Nowak: Served time; unknown whereabouts
Ellariy Medvednik: Released 2017; unknown whereabouts
Thomas Duke: Released approximately 2008; unknown whereabouts
Terence Haley: Probation ended 2009; unknown whereabouts

And on and on. Out of 100+ convicted individuals, I could only definitively locate a handful, those currently incarcerated or recently sentenced. Everyone else disappeared into the ether.

Are they working in transportation again? Different states? Different names? We have no way to know. There is no national database tracking individuals convicted of transportation-related crimes. The FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse tracks drivers with substance violations, but not examiners, DMV employees, or school operators convicted of fraud.

State criminal databases exist, but they’re not cross-referenced with licensing systems. A third-party examiner convicted of fraud in Ohio could theoretically become an examiner in Florida, a different state, with a clean background check in the new jurisdiction.

What a Fraud Clearinghouse Should Look Like

The solution exists. We just need to implement it.

Create a Federal CDL Fraud Conviction Database modeled after the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse but focused on criminal convictions.

Who Should Be Tracked:

• CDL examiners convicted of fraud

• DMV/motor vehicle employees convicted of fraud

• Driving school owners/operators convicted of fraud

• State employees convicted of licensing fraud

• Brokers, carriers, and middlemen convicted of CDL-related crimes

• Individuals convicted of identity theft related to CDLs

What Information Should Be Included:

• Name, aliases, and identifying information

• Nature of conviction (fraud, bribery, falsification)

• Date of conviction and sentencing

• States where crimes occurred

• Current incarceration status

• Release date and probation terms

• Professional licenses held (past and present)

• Lifetime ban status from transportation industry

Mandatory Reporting Requirements:

• Federal prosecutors must report all transportation fraud convictions to the database within 30 days

• State DMVs must report all license revocations related to fraud

• FMCSA must cross-reference with existing systems

Employment Verification System:

• DMVs must check the database before approving third-party examiners

• States must verify no fraud history before issuing examiner certifications

• Trucking schools must check before hiring instructors

• Create lifetime bans for certain fraud categories

Interstate Coordination Protocol:

• Flag when tracked individuals apply for licenses in new states

• Alert authorities to cross-state patterns

• Share conviction information automatically between states

• Prevent “state-shopping” by fraudsters

Public Access Component:

• Public searchable database of convicted transportation fraudsters

• Allows employers, schools, and consumers to verify individuals

• Transparency about who is banned from the industry

• Annual reports on fraud trends and prosecutions

Integration with Existing Systems:

• Connect to FMCSA’s Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse

• Link with Commercial Driver’s License Information System (CDLIS)

• Interface with National Crime Information Center (NCIC)

• Cross-reference state criminal justice databases

• Connect to professional licensing boards

The Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse proves this is technologically feasible. It launched in 2020 and employers query it over a million times annually. It works. It prevents problem drivers from evading consequences by moving to new states. A fraud clearinghouse would operate in the same manner.

The Current State…Still Broke

The most recent cases in my dataset occurred in 2025, a Massachusetts trooper, Louisiana DMV employees, and a Connecticut woman who maintained a fraudulent identity for 25 years. This isn’t historical. This is happening right now.

The August 2025 Louisiana indictment involved six individuals, including DMV employees, third-party testers, and a restaurant owner, who conspired to issue CDLs without meeting federal or state requirements. The scheme operated from at least August 2020 to February 2024. Four years. Right under regulators’ noses.

In Massachusetts, the “golden handshake” scheme operated from February 2019 to January 2023. Four years. State Police troopers were giving passing scores to applicants described as “brain dead” in exchange for bottled water and snowblowers. For four years.

These aren’t sophisticated operations requiring Ocean’s Eleven-level planning. These are simple bribery schemes, cash or goods for passing scores. And they operated for years before being discovered.

How many similar schemes are currently operating in states where we haven’t caught them yet? How many third-party examiners are pre-signing score sheets? How many DMV employees are altering database records? How many driving schools guarantee passage regardless of competence?

We don’t know. And we have no way to find out until someone gets killed and an investigation traces the crash back to a fraudulent license.

For two decades, America’s CDL system has been compromised by systematic fraud. Conservative estimates suggest that at least 6,000 fraudulent licenses were issued, although the actual number could be 10,000 or more, including undiscovered cases.

We’ve created a system where:

• Safety regulations can be purchased for $2,000

• DMV employees augment their salaries by selling database access

• Driving schools guarantee passage regardless of competence

• Non-English speakers operate vehicles they can’t legally control

• Fatal crashes are the inevitable result

• Convicted fraudsters serve minimal sentences and disappear back into society

• No database tracks where they go or what they do next

And here’s the worst part: Nothing fundamental has changed.

The same structural vulnerabilities exist today. The same outsourced testing system operates with minimal oversight. The same financial incentives drive corruption. The same interstate reciprocity allows fraud to spread across jurisdictions. The same lack of tracking allows convicted criminals to disappear.

George Ryan died at home, a free man who’d already spent 12 years back in society after serving time for corruption that cost six children their lives. Where are the dozens of third-party examiners, DMV employees, and driving school operators convicted over the past two decades? We don’t know. The system doesn’t track them.

Meanwhile, Gary Cederquist awaits sentencing in October 2025, and the Louisiana defendants prepare for trial. When they’re convicted, and they likely will be convicted, because the evidence is overwhelming, they’ll serve abbreviated sentences and rejoin society. And we’ll have no idea where they go or what they do next.

Until we demand federal standards, eliminate third-party testing conflicts of interest, create a national CDL fraud database, and impose mandatory English proficiency requirements, we’re just waiting for the next Adem Salihovic to trigger the next mass casualty event.

The fraud factory is still running. The question isn’t whether more people will die, it’s how many, and how soon.