5 Louisville residents face federal charges for selling illegal driver's licenses to immigrants

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Five Louisville residents were indicted by a federal grand jury months after a whistleblower said her co-workers sold immigrants' driver's licenses they couldn't legally obtain, charging $200 per license.

The United States Department of Justice announced Tuesday that five men and women "devised and executed a scheme that solicited illegal fees between $200 and $1,500 from legally present, non-U.S. citizens who were applying for driver's licenses on the promise that they would be expedited through the process without undergoing testing requirements.

All five defendants, listed below, are charged with 14 counts of mail fraud, one count of mail fraud conspiracy, 14 counts of honest services mail fraud, one count of honest services mail fraud conspiracy, 14 counts of unlawful production of identification documents and one count of money laundering conspiracy:

Donnita Wilson, 32
Aariel Matthews, 27
Raul Tellez Ojeda, 32
Lazaro Alejandro Castello Rojas, 37
Robert Danger Correa, 41

According to the indictment, Wilson worked at the Nia Center driver's license branch on West Broadway in Louisville, and Ojeda, Castello Rojas and Correa regularly "recruited" non-U.S. citizens, often accompanying them to their appointment. Matthews was employed by a temp agency and began doing work in March 2024 for KYTC.

Wilson and Matthews "misused their access to KYTC systems" to change license records and give those they'd recruited licenses that "appeared valid"

"Only by reviewing records created and manually changed in the KYTC systems could one determine a license had not been issued illegally," the indictment reads.

"This indictment represents the culmination of an investigation into a scheme by Kentucky Transportation Cabinet employees and others to illegally circumvent Kentucky's process for issuing driver's licenses, thereby issuing invalid licenses to lawfully present, non-U.S. citizens who had not first demonstrated their qualifications to drive on our roads," Kyle Bumgarner, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, said in a news release Tuesday. "Proper vetting of individuals seeking a driver's license is a prerequisite to ensuring the safety of Kentucky's roadways and ensuring the legitimacy of state-issued identification. As alleged in the indictment, this fraudulent scheme involved kickbacks and bribes leading to numerous legally present, non-U.S. citizens obtaining unlawfully issued drivers licenses."

If convicted, all five defendants face a maximum of 20 years in prison for each count of mail fraud, mail fraud conspiracy, honest services mail fraud and money laundering and 15 years for each count of unlawful production of identification documents.

Background

Melissa Moorman, a former clerk at a Kentucky driver's licensing branch, came forward with a whistleblower lawsuit in August, claiming the scheme happened four or five times a day for at least two years at multiple branches across the state. According to a whistleblower lawsuit, when Moorman alerted the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to the scam, she was fired.

"The employees were being paid under the table," Moorman told WDRB News. "I immediately let my supervisor know."

Moorman worked at Louisville's Nia Center Licensing Branch through Quantum Solutions, a staffing service contracted by the commonwealth to supplement personnel at regional offices.

WDRB first reported on the state's license fraud investigation in April after obtaining a leaked revocation notice. According to documents obtained through an open records requests, KYTC sent 1,546 letters warning recipients of "irregularities" in their licenses, saying they were "issued in error ... invalid and will be canceled" and threatening criminal charges if the license wasn't returned.

At that time, KYTC confirmed at least two terminations — one at the Nia Center in west Louisville and another at the Elizabethtown branch — but wouldn't release details. The cabinet denied requests for public documents on resignations, terminations and letters sent to drivers, citing ongoing investigations with Kentucky State Police and the U.S. Attorney's Office. In total, KYTC withheld 2,300 records.

But Moorman's account offers new details. She said she was unwillingly roped into the scam when two co-workers began using her computer login, something her supervisor asked her to share because not all employees had their own and she was training as a supervisor. The same co-workers had previously invited her to join a "business venture."

"I was asked to bring certain customers in," Moorman said. "They are brought in to me without a sign-in, and you would scan their documents as usual."

Moorman said those documents, including social security cards and birth certificates, were made to look real and used to issue illegal immigrants driver's permits and licenses who never took the tests.

In October 2024, Moorman said she wrote a letter along with her supervisor to notify KYTC about the scheme. She said the fraud relied on skipping Homeland Security background checks, which she discovered when transactions were processed under her name while she was away from her desk.

In April, KYTC said in a court filing Moorman was fired "for legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons not causally related to the alleged whistleblowing activity."

Under Kentucky law, non-U.S. citizens may obtain a standard driver's license only if they provide legal presence documentation and proof of residency. KYTC confirms applicants' status through federal verification systems.

"For immigrants who don't have a pathway to obtain legal status, having a driver's license can mean the difference between getting home from work safely to their children or wives or husband and not," immigration attorney Adienne Trivedi said. "For a relatively small price to be able to have that chance of avoiding deportation, even just for that day, they're willing to take it."

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