Prosecutor: 14 Men Scammed NJ Drivers License System, 3 Remain at Large

State officials using powerful facial recognition software charged 14 men, including three from Bergen County, with using bogus documents to obtain state drivers licenses. 

Eleven of those 14 men were arrested on the heels of a 2012 anti-fraud initiative using cutting edge facial analysis software to determine if the same individual was maintaining more than one record in New Jersey’s motor vehicle database.

“The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission database has approximately 19 million images that produced over 950,000 leads,” according to a release from Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli’s office. “After three levels of review to identify suspected criminal fraud, representatives from the Division of Criminal Justice meet weekly to review cases of suspected criminal fraud.  These cases are prepared for investigation, arrest and prosecution by law enforcement including the Division of Criminal Justice, New Jersey State Police and all 21 County Prosecutors’ Offices.”

So far this year 27 cases were referred to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office White Collar Crimes Squad for investigation and charges were brought against 14 men. 

The men arrested this week were from Bergen, Passaic and Essex counties and had suspended licenses for a number of reasons—DUI arrests, fraud, visa problems, among others—but found ways to skirt their driving bans.

Of the 14 sought by officials, 11 people were apprehended and charged with fraudulent use of the personal identifying information of another and sent to the Bergen County Jail on $25,000 bail. 

The three men who were not caught—Terrell Cooley of Teaneck, Carmine Piemontese of Pompton Lakes and Jayvon Hannibal of Paterson—remain “fugitives from justice” the prosecutor said.