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4 Indicted In License Scam Linked To DMV Clerk

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 8, 2008

TAMPA - Four people have been indicted on charges they conspired with a former state motor vehicle department clerk to take bribes in exchange for commercial driver's licenses.

The former clerk, Yolanda Pippins, pleaded guilty in 2006 to taking bribes and agreed to cooperate with investigators by providing information on the scheme to sell the licenses to unqualified people. She is scheduled to be sentenced in March.

Pippins worked in the Largo office of the Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles when she was caught selling the licenses.

Her attorney, Patrick Doherty, told federal Magistrate Thomas B. McCoun III in 2006 that Pippins did not always receive money. Sometimes, he said, "it was in return for a dinner or other things."

Federal authorities today unsealed an indictment handed up in November against four people: Santos Alamo, Gustavo Soler, Serguei Leon and Eric Hernandez Suarez. The indictment charges conspiracy, wire fraud and unlawful production and transfer of identification documents.

According to the indictment, Soler acted as a middleman for people who wanted to get commercial driver's licenses but were unqualified. He worked with Alamo to bribe Pippins, the indictment alleges.

Leon and Suarez paid bribes to Pippins through Alamo and Soler, according to the indictment, which says the scheme ran from 2001 to July 22, 2005.

Doherty said Pippins was friends with Soler and Gustavo, who "ingratiated themselves with her, probably on purpose. … They asked her to do this, and I think several of the times, if not many of the times, it was done as a favor, and then money began to change hands."

Doherty said investigators think Pippins illegally approved of at least 100 driver's licenses.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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