Like the flight school students pre-9/11.
Bruce http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/16411210.htm Many drivers' names, but one address Licensed truckers went to Missouri school that was allegedly involved in significant test fraud. By STEVE ROCK and TONY RIZZO The Kansas City Star At least a dozen people who obtained commercial driver's licenses from a southern Missouri trucking school claimed to live at the same central Kansas City address. In reality, nobody lives there. It is a small auto-sales business. The owner said he never heard of the dozen drivers. That's one of numerous examples The Kansas City Star recently found of multiple drivers, all licensed through the same truck-driving school, claiming to share Missouri addresses. Federal investigators alleged widespread test fraud involving the school last fall. The shared addresses could have tipped authorities earlier that something was amiss. But state officials admit they currently lack a way to compare licenses for such irregularities. Loosely enforced licensing rules and a lack of oversight beset the country's commercial trucking system, industry experts contend. The consequences could be deadly. "Just about anybody can walk in the door and get a CDL," said Todd Spencer of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. "If you have the skills to avoid a few cones, even if you're not very good, you can find a place where somebody is likely to pass you." Grueling hours and relatively low pay help create huge turnover, which in turn increases demand for drivers. Federal law requires that drivers have a commercial driver's license, or CDL, to operate tractor-trailers, large trucks or even school buses. States with reputations for lax licensing systems have proven to be a draw for many would-be truckers. Once these drivers get their commercial licenses, whether they qualified or not, they're ready to climb behind the wheel of a 100,000-pound semi or haul hazardous material anywhere on America's roadways. Even safeguards such as Missouri's residency requirement were easily overcome - applicants just listed false addresses and no one caught them. The problem of license fraud extends beyond state lines because many states allow drivers to simply exchange their license for one in another state without re-testing. Consider the case of one Ohio man who gained his commercial license through the now-closed South Central Career Center Truck Driver Training School in West Plains, Mo. Hussein Osman was driving a tractor-trailer when he collided with an Oklahoma state trooper's car in October. Both were killed. Though Osman, 25, lived in Ohio, he listed a Kansas City address when he obtained his license through South Central. Sixteen others also listed that address when they obtained their CDLs through the school, The Star found by examining state license data. Using a phony address to obtain a commercial driver's license is a class A misdemeanor in Missouri. In the South Central case, federal officials charged 15 people with conspiring to help more than 70 Somali and Bosnian nationals illegally obtain commercial licenses. As many as 300 people may have obtained licenses fraudulently, federal officials said. The indictment alleges that many never took the written or competency exams. Spencer, executive vice president of the 148,000-member association based in Grain Valley, called the system "outrageous." He said fraud was a problem across the country and that once a person obtained a CDL, "There's not much checking." A 2005 federal Department of Transportation report noted that CDL fraud schemes had been investigated in 23 states over five years. Many of these involved "third-party" testers similar to the Missouri school. Many of the common factors for fraud cited in the report were present in the Missouri case, including foreign nationals without the language skills to pass written tests; lack of required state residency; and insufficient driving skills. Some fear that test fraud could allow terrorists to get commercial licenses, though federal officials have found no evidence of this in the South Central case. Maura Browning, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Revenue, which oversees driver's licenses, said everybody who obtained a commercial license from South Central was being ordered to re-take the test. Officials are also trying to alert officials in other states. According to The Star's analysis, about one-third of people who obtained CDLs from South Central since May 2004 exchanged their Missouri licenses for ones in other states. Overall, Browning said, state officials have identified 1,958 drivers since July 2005 with licenses from schools under state or federal investigation. The state has ordered each be re-tested. Of those, she said, 724 have left the state. Dubious addresses A federal indictment identifies Ernest A. "Mustafa" White of Kansas City as a key player in the South Central case. White, the owner of a Kansas City, Kan., trucking school, allegedly promised to train and assist students in "passing" the license exams in exchange for money. He allegedly provided written test answers and helped students "pass" the driving competency exam without being at the testing site, the indictment said. In announcing the charges, federal prosecutors said White developed a national reputation. They said he was known in the Somali community for obtaining "the invisible license" and that students returned to their home states of Minnesota, Ohio, Texas and others. Minnesota discovered 65 CDL holders had obtained Missouri licenses, officials there said. The drivers were asked to re-take the test, cancel their licenses or "drop down" to a regular license. Twenty-three re-took and passed the test. Seven canceled and 26 "dropped down." Others left the state or are being interviewed, officials said. Reached by phone last week, White declined to comment. Three of the Kansas City addresses used by multiple drivers have a connection to White, The Star found. He is listed as the renter at 9845 Blue Ridge Blvd. in a Jackson County court case his landlord recently filed alleging nonpayment of rent. Osman, the driver killed in Oklahoma, used that address. So did at least 16 other commercial drivers who got their licenses through South Central, records show. Yet a woman who answered the door there recently told The Star she didn't know any of the people whose names appeared in the state data and said none had lived there. Overland Park resident Howard E. Schneider, one of those charged in the indictment, listed the Blue Ridge address when he obtained his CDL. His attorney told The Star that, to his knowledge, Schneider never lived there. White also is named as renter at 8755 E. 107th St. in another Jackson County suit over unpaid rent. Three other Missouri CDL holders list that address, records show. According to state records, White's driver's license lists his address as 5529 Chestnut Ave. - the address used by 12 other people when they obtained their CDLs, according to records The Star obtained. One of the defendants in the indictment is Abdiwahab Mohamud Mohamed, who allegedly directed students to White. Mohamed lives in Minnesota, according to court documents filed in support of the indictment, but he listed 4301 E. 27th St. - the auto sales shop - as his home address with Missouri officials. He is one of those in Minnesota whose commercial license has been "canceled," officials there said. The auto sales shop's owner, who bought it about a year ago, said he had been questioned by federal officials but knew nothing about the case or the trucking school. Mohamed declined to comment through his attorney. What's next? Federal transportation records show that, on average, 40,000 commercial driver's licenses are issued every month nationwide and that 123,000 are transferred between states annually. The huge volume makes it difficult for officials to detect fraud, some said. Even so, federal transportation officials have developed a CDL anti-fraud program to help states identify and combat fraud. But it's up to the states to carry out changes. In Missouri, Browning said there was no mechanism to detect if an address repeatedly appeared, as apparently happened at South Central. "We could come up with a way to run a report that would sort by address, but we're talking about hundreds of thousands of records," she said. "We don't have the resources to predict every way a person may commit fraud." Spurred by South Central allegations, lawmakers in Missouri have begun to address problems. They enacted legislation that greatly limited tests conducted by entities such as South Central. In essence, Browning said, the law that took effect in August requires the general public to be tested through the Missouri Highway Patrol rather than through third-party testers. That should alleviate most of the problems, said Rep. Neal St. Onge, a St. Louis County Republican who pushed the law. "It's a significant step," he said. "The whole idea of third-party testing, that just invites problems: 'Come to our school. We'll guarantee you a license.' They have a vested interest to pass you." And that invites problems outside of Missouri. "This is not a local issue," St. Onge said. "When we started working on this, I ended up with an FBI special agent and an agent for the joint terrorism task force sitting in my office for a couple hours one morning. . With the Homeland Security implications, this is something we're very interested in." So much so that St. Onge said he intended to file a bill in the current session that would forbid people from using interpreters when taking their CDL tests. The federal indictment alleges that some foreign-language test-takers at South Central were fed the correct answers. "I really think these guys should be able to read, write and understand English," St. Onge said. What about terrorism? Officials emphasized last fall that the South Central trucking school indictment did not allege that any of the defendants were involved in terrorism. But of those who got licenses through the alleged scheme, up to 200 later were certified to haul hazardous materials. An FBI official cited the case as a "clear example of our preventive efforts." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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