New York state and federal authorities on July 2 announced multiple arrests in a scheme where numerous Chinese immigrants illegally purchased their driver’s licenses without passing the required exams.
District Attorney Michael McMahon said T&E Driving School in Queens allegedly bribed Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) examiners on Staten Island to rig exams, enabling applicants, many of whom didn’t speak English, to obtain driver’s licenses for a substantial fee.
He said at a press conference on July 1 that the crackdown, named Operation Road Test, dismantled the ring through a joint investigation with the New York state inspector general, U.S. postal inspector, New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, Homeland Security Investigations, and NYPD.
“Too many people have gotten driver’s licenses because of corruption, because of greed, because of theft,” he said at the conference.
He said the arrested New York State motor vehicle examiners “ brazenly betrayed their oath of office by accepting cash in exchange for falsifying the results of countless road examinations, or in many cases, allowing individuals to bypass the testing process altogether.”
The DMV employees accused of taking bribes to falsify exams and issue licenses are Staten Island residents Edward Tarik Queen, 40, of Elm Park; Aji Idicula, 43, of Willowbrook; and Tianna Rose Andolina, 30, of Arden Heights.
Driving Licenses Without Exams
T&E Driving School was based on Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, Queens. It used social media to solicit clients, particularly people from China’s southeast Fujian province, many of whom are not U.S. citizens and don’t speak English.
If the client already had a permit, the school charged $1,600 for a driver’s license or $2,000 for both a learner’s permit and a license.
The school then arranged one of two methods: sending an employee to impersonate the client during exams and road tests, or allegedly bribing DMV examiners to issue the permits and licenses without any exams.
The owner of T&E Driving School, Weixan Tan, 38, secretary and employee Weiwan Tan, 40, and Winnie Yang, 36, were among those arrested.
Investigators seized 150 permits handed over to T&E in the process of obtaining fraudulent licenses.
Inside Whistleblower
Authorities were tipped off by DMV insiders about suspicious exams in test scheduling.
A Fujianese-speaking undercover NYPD detective reached out to T&E Driving School. He submitted a learner’s permit and paid $1,600 for a driver’s license.
The school later informed him that he didn’t need to attend the scheduled road test on Staten Island. Shortly after, he received an official state-issued license.
The total number of clients who obtained fraudulent licenses from T&E remains unknown, officials estimate that a single Staten Island DMV examiner conducts approximately 1,500 tests annually.
The majority of defendants listed in the indictment face a primary felony charge, which could result in a prison sentence of 2 to 7 years if a jury finds them guilty.
They are scheduled to return to the state Supreme Court in St. George on Sept. 3. The case is being prosecuted by Gregg Brown, chief of the Economic Crimes Bureau.
