Investigations

On December 5, 2019, Jagpal Singh was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Sacramento, California, to 39 months’ incarceration, 12 months’ supervised release, and a $200 special assessment fee. On March 4, 2019, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, identity fraud, and unauthorized use of a computer, as well as identification document fraud.

 

Singh, the owner of a trucking school, participated in a scheme to bribe California Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) employees to provide commercial driver’s licenses (CDL) to unqualified drivers. According to court documents, he bribed two DMV employees who also pleaded guilty. Lisa Terraciano was sentenced to 3 years and 4 months in prison, and Kari Scattaglia was sentenced to 2 years and 8 months in prison. Their part in the scheme was to access the DMV’s database in Sacramento and alter the records for Singh’s students to show that CDL applicants had passed the required tests when they had not done so. In some cases, they had not even taken the tests. As a result, the DMV issued permits and CDLs to unqualified applicants.

 

DOT-OIG conducted this investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and California DMV.