Driving School Owner Pleads Guilty to License Bribery Scheme

The owner of a Massachusetts driving school has pleaded guilty to bribing a road test examiner to issue driver’s licenses to individuals who did not pass, or even take road tests at the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) in Brockton.

Estevao Semedo pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud before U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani who scheduled sentencing for Aug. 1, 2023. Semedo was charged on March 2, 2023.

The driving school operator conspired to defraud the RMV into issuing driver’s licenses to applicants who did not pass the road test. Prosecutors said Semedo paid a road test examiner to misrepresent that certain driver’s license applicants had passed their road test when, in fact, they had not. Some of the applicants did not even show up to take the test.

As a result of the fraud, the RMV mailed driver’s licenses to unqualified applicants. In total, Semedo paid the road test examiner no less than $17,000 in bribes in exchange for fraudulent passing scores on road tests.

Two Agree to Plead Guilty in Massachusetts Driver’s License Scam

In a separate development last week, a Massachusetts woman pleaded guilty to accepting money in exchange for agreeing to issue passing learner’s permit test scores to applicants regardless of whether they actually passed. Mia Cox-Johnson, a former manager of the RMV service center in Brockton, took money in exchange for agreeing to give passing scores for both passenger vehicle driver’s licenses and commercial driver’s licenses.

Four RMV employees, including Cox-Johnson, were fired in February 2022 after an investigation found that 2,100 people were wrongly granted licenses. All had to qualify for licenses legitimately.

Topics Personal Auto K-12