BMV workers charged in ID-fraud ring (The Columbus Dispatch)

BMV workers charged in ID-fraud ring

Ohio ID cards sold to undocumented immigrants

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 3:15 PM

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Four central Ohioans were among eight members of an identity-fraud ring that helped undocumented immigrants from Virginia illegally obtain state identification cards at a deputy registrar’s office on the Far East Side, according to a federal indictment issued today.

Named in the indictment were Nekeia Mack-Fuller, 29, of Reynoldsburg, and Michelle Eckerman, 21, of Canal Winchester. They are accused of knowingly providing Ohio identification cards to the immigrants, who were brought to the office on Scarborough Boulevard.

Mack-Fuller was a manager and Eckerman a clerk at the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles office.

Prosecutors said in a news release Luis M. Rosado-Rodriguez, 29, of Ponce, Puerto Rico, obtained authentic Puerto Rican birth certificates and Social Security cards and sold them to Jairo Gomez, 32, Edwin Roberto Mendez, 32, and a third person identified only as “Juan,” all of Harrisonburg, Va.

The three men provided the immigrants with transportation to Ohio.

Then Jose Antonio Guiterrez-Rameriz, 34, and Christina Dawn Cheatham, 23, both of Columbus, helped the immigrants get to the Scarborough Boulevard office and acted as interpreters as Mack-Fuller and Eckerman processed the documents, according to a news release.

Charges against the eight defendants include conspiracy, aggravated ID fraud and identity fraud conspiracy. If convicted each faces 20 to 22 years in prison and a fine up to $500,000.

“Enforcing our nation’s immigration laws is one of our highest priorities,” John Brownlee, U.S. attorney for the western district of Virginia, said in the release. “Had this conspiracy not been stopped, many more illegal aliens would have obtained identification papers, making it extremely difficult for law enforcement to identify and deport them.”