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Man gets 6-month jail term for driver’s license fraud
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Posted on Oct 09 2011
The federal court on Friday sentenced to six months in prison Wei Lin, a Chinese national convicted for fraudulently obtaining a CNMI driver’s license.
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona gave Lin credit for the six months he already served in jail.
Manglona ordered Lin to pay a $300 court assessment fee. No fine was imposed.
Assistant U.S. attorney Eric O’Malley stated that the U.S. government recommends not to impose any fines as the prosecution hopes to get a conviction in the second pending case against Lin and get restitution for the alleged victims.
Defense attorney Michael Norita Evangelista told Saipan Tribune that the sentence was very reasonable.
“We thank the court for its time and consideration,” Evangelista said.
Evangelista’s co-counsel, Joseph Norita Camacho, informed Saipan Tribune that Lin wants to appeal his conviction.
Camacho said he will meet Evangelista and the defendant to determine the issues to be appealed.
In August 2011, a federal jury found Lin guilty of two counts of document fraud, and one count of making a false statement to a federal agent.
According to the indictment, Lin paid $350 to a third party to unlawfully obtain the driver’s license without meeting the requirements for the issuance of a valid driver’s license under CNMI law.
Lin presented the Bureau of Motor Vehicles with an affidavit falsely stating that he had lost his previous driver’s license, when he knew that his license had been confiscated by a police officer.
The prosecution said that on April 2, 2011, Lin told Department of Homeland Security special agent Isra Harahap that he did not have any identification documents, and that his driver’s license had been taken by a U.S. immigration agent in the parking lot of a poker establishment in San Jose.
The prosecution said the statements were false because as Lin knew, he was in actual possession of a duplicate CNMI driver’s license that he had fraudulently procured.
