Investigations

On November 3, 2017, Lisa Terraciano and Kari Scattaglia, employees of the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court, Sacramento, California, related to their roles in a conspiracy to sell Class A commercial driver’s licenses (CDL) without the buyer having to take or pass the required tests.

 

The investigation revealed that since April 2007, Scattaglia worked as a manager, assistant manager, and a licensing-registration examiner (LRE) at the Arleta DMV and the Granada Hills Driver License Processing Center. Terraciano had worked for the DMV since June 2005 and was a motor vehicle representative (MVR) in the Winnetka DMV office from 2014 through 2017. Scattaglia and Terraciano’s duties included processing applications for California CDLs, which are required to operate tractor-trailer trucks on California and interstate highways and to transport hazardous materials.

 

In exchange for money, Scattaglia and Terraciano each accessed the DMV’s database in Sacramento and altered the records of applicants to fraudulently show that they passed the required written tests. In fact, the applicants had not passed or, at times, even taken the written tests. This caused the DMV to issue permits to those drivers as well as completed CDLs to applicants who supposedly passed behind-the-wheel driving tests. However, Scattaglia also fraudulently altered records in the DMV database to show they had passed the driving tests when they had not.

 

The investigation determined that Terraciano caused at least 148 fraudulent CDLs, including permits, to be issued and Scattaglia caused at least 68 fraudulent CDLs, including permits, to be issued.

 

DOT-OIG is conducting this investigation with the FBI and California DMV.