Kentucky auditor demands response from governor on immigrant driver's license fraud claims

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentucky State Auditor Allison Ball sent Gov. Andy Beshear a letter Wednesday demanding answers after a WDRB investigation uncovered potential fraud in the state transportation cabinet.

Former clerk Melissa Moorman claims undocumented workers bought Kentucky licenses under the table for $200 a piece, and the scam played out several times a day and in multiple branches.

"As Kentucky's duly elected Auditor of Public Accounts, it is my responsibility to ensure that all executive branch officials and entities follow the law," Ball wrote to Beshear in a letter obtained by WDRB News. "I am writing to formally request an explanation of your action plan to address all of these serious matters."

The memo is addressed to both Beshear and Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Secretary Jim Gray. It mentions information specifically brought forward in the WDRB investigation.

"A whistleblower has alleged that the Cabinet's agents have essentially created a black market to sell driver's licenses to illegal noncitizens. This appears to be the latest information relating to an ongoing criminal investigation that began around eight months ago and about which the public has yet to hear any updates," Ball wrote. "In fact, when the public has sought information and answers about these irregularities, the Cabinet has refused to turn over any of the approximately 2,300 records connected to this topic."

The letter asks the administration for a response by September 1st explaining "your action plan to address all of these serious matters."

Beshear couldn't avoid questions on the topic during his weekly press conference. He confirmed the number of licenses KYTC revoked so far.

"They have revoked 1985 credentials. To our knowledge all employees involved had been hired through a temp agency and have been terminated. KYTC immediately contacted law enforcement who are engaged in criminal investigation and it includes multiple offices that are both state and federal," Beshear said. "We are committed to getting all of the facts and holding anybody who violated the law accountable."

Moorman said the scheme played out in several different drivers licensing regional offices for at least two years, and that colleagues pulled it off where she worked at the Nia Center in West Louisville by using her login. She said when she reported it she was fired.

KYTC refuted that claim in response to Moorman's lawsuit saying she was, "terminated for legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons not causally related to the alleged whistleblowing activity.”

The response did not elaborate or offer details on any of the reasons.

Ball's press for answers aligns with state lawmakers who are also making inquiries.

"It's pretty shocking. Everybody was talking about it throughout the day in Frankfort," Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Majority Whip, said Tuesday in an interview with WDRB. "We're going to start an investigation with our oversight committee and we're asking the attorney general to investigate it from a law enforcement angle."

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.

KYTC said it had nearly 2,300 records in response to WDRB's requests in the license fraud case and it withheld every single one of them with one paragraph.

"These records are directly related to ongoing KYTC administrative investigations as well as state and federal criminal investigations into these licensing irregularities," the cabinet said. "The premature release of these records would compromise the investigations by revealing the content of the current investigative evidence and by revealing witnesses and their actions thereby alerting unknown, unidentified, or undisclosed suspects of the extent of the investigation into the irregularities and the existing evidence all prior to the conclusion of the investigations and prior to impending law enforcement actions. The Transportation Cabinet, in consultation with state and federal law enforcement, asserts that the Cabinet and these agencies are in the fifth month of ongoing investigations into these irregularities, these Cabinet locations, and this period."

Nemes said Rep. Scott Sharp, R-Ashland head of the oversight committee, will send a subpoena requesting documents.

"... if they say no to him, then they're going to have to answer questions about why," Nemes said.

In April, Beshear admitted in an interview with WDRB there was an ongoing fraud investigation related to driver's licensing in Kentucky but, when asked if it had anything to do with immigration, he said he wasn't "aware."

That's despite Moorman's letter blowing the whistle six months earlier.

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 Adrienne 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."

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman called the fraudulent license issue troubling and unacceptable conduct.

"Hand in hand with our state and federal law enforcement partners, we’ve been aggressively investigating this potential fraud for some time now, well before this week's reporting," Coleman said.

To WDRB's knowledge, no one has ever been charged in the license fraud investigation.

Kentucky withholds records of fraud investigation after drivers obtain licenses without a test