DMV employees in NYC made over $1 million issuing fake identification to convicted criminals, including one man who appeared on "America's Most Wanted." Cops cuffed six members of the ID operation today, including its suspected ringleader Wilch DeWalt. According to Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara more than 200 people were sold stolen identities for $7,000 to $10,000 apiece. [PDF] "The fraud ring's client base was essentially a rap sheet," he said, adding that "The integrity of any security system, no matter how elaborate or expensive, is only as good as the integrity of the people who carry it out."
In addition to the six fake ID purveyors (ones is still at large) police charged 15 customers who were given phony driver's license, birth certificates, social security cards and work papers, reports the Wall Street Journal. Police say the ring was totally unscrupulous about who received its product; so much so that it was eventually found out. The group sold identification to a sex offender, and even to a man who claimed he was on the government's no-fly list and wanted a new identity so that he could travel to Pakistan. Unfortunately for them, the latter was an undercover cop.
