Investigations

On September 24, 2015, Ellariy Medvednik, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in U.S. District Court, Orlando, Florida.  Previously, in August 2015, Ellariy Medvednik, Natalia Dontsova, and Adrian Salari were charged with conspiracy to unlawfully produce Florida driver licenses and commercial drivers’ licenses (CDL).

 

The Florida Highway Patrol and the Orange County Florida Tax Collector’s Office discovered several hundred people applying for CDLs using the same residential address in Seminole County. This address is registered as the principal place of business for Larex Incorporated, a trucking school owned and operated by Medvednik. 

 

Larex marketed itself towards speakers of the Russian language and charged students approximately $1,800 to $5,000 for services in obtaining a Florida CDL. Medvednik, along with others, helped students cheat on the CDL written exam by utilizing covert communications to supply answers to the students while they were taking the tests. They also knowingly provided false certifications and other documents to students to satisfy Florida CDL residency requirements. Additionally, Larex arranged for students to complete the basic control skills and road test utilizing the same 3rd party CDL testing contractor. The conspirators caused at least 400 students to obtain fraudulent Florida CDLs.

 

We are conducting this investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations.