Sixteen people have pleaded guilty in connection with a mariner s license test score-fixing scheme at a U.S. Coast Guard exam center, the U.S. Attorney s Office in New Orleans said Tuesday.
Sixteen people have pleaded guilty in connection with a mariner's license test score-fixing scheme at a United States Coast Guard exam center, the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Orleans said Tuesday.
16 guilty pleas in licensing scam at New Orleans Coast Guard center
1 month 2 weeks 2 days ago
Wednesday, February 03 2021
Feb 3, 2021
February 03, 2021 5:18 AM
February 03, 2021
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Source: Associated Press
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) Sixteen people have pleaded guilty in connection with a mariner’s license test score-fixing scheme at a United States Coast Guard exam center, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Orleans said Tuesday.
They were among more than 30 people indicted in November in the scheme.
U.S. Attorney Peter Strasser’s news release says those whose pleas were announced Tuesday admitted they fraudulently obtained various mariners’ licenses by paying for phony exam scores.
Strasser
NEW ORLEANS – The first prison sentence has been handed out in the continuing investigation by the U.S. attorney into staged auto accidents designed to defraud trucking companies and insurers.
Peter Strasser, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, announced Jan. 22 that Mario Solomon, 48, of New Orleans has been sentenced to 21 months behind bars for his role as a “spotter” in a wide-ranging conspiracy involving attorneys, drivers, medical providers and car passengers. The ultimate goal was to ensnare big-rig companies into insurance fraud schemes, according to indictments filed by Strasser’s office.
Solomon was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. As a spotter, he picked up fellow conspirator Damian Labeaud, the driver of a passenger car who collided with 18-wheelers during incidents in 2017. Typically, spotters also serve as accident “eyewitnesses�
First sentence in Louisiana staged accidents: less than 2 years
21 months in prison for minor player in scheme who cooperated with investigators Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves
The first sentence in the Louisiana staged truck accident scandal has been handed down, with a relatively low-level conspirator getting 21 months behind bars for his role.
Mario Solomon was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Eldon Fallon to that term in prison, along with three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay restitution of approximately $71,000 to the victims in the case, though it wasn’t immediately clear who the court would identify as the victims beyond the trucking companies that owned the vehicles that were hit by cars.