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Man sentenced for exchanging bribes for CDLs for unqualified drivers

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A California trucking school owner was sentenced to prison for a scheme involving bribing Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) employees in exchange for Commercial Drivers Licenses (CDL) for his students.

On Thursday, December 5, 61 year old Jagpal “Paul” Singh was sentenced to three years in prison, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of California.

Earlier this year, Singh pled guilty to charges including conspiracy to commit bribery, to commit identity fraud, and to commit unauthorized use of a computer, and for identification document fraud.

Singh owned the Calcutta Truck School in the north Hollywood area.

The charges stem from a bribery scheme involving Singh and two California DMV workers that allegedly took place between September 2014 and June 2017:

According to court documents, Singh paid bribes to two DMV employees, Lisa Terraciano and Kari Scattaglia, both of whom pleaded guilty. Terraciano was sentenced to three years and four months in prison, and Scattaglia was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison, for, in part, accessing and altering records in the DMV’s database in Sacramento for Singh’s students. Records were altered to show that applicants for CDLs had passed the required tests when, in truth, they had not done so, and in some cases had not even taken the tests. This caused the DMV to issue permits and completed CDLs despite the applicants not having taken or passed those tests.

Charges related to the scheme are also pending against co-defendants Tajinder Singh, 34, driving school owner, Parminder Singh, 29, broker, and Shawana Denise Harris, 49, DMV employee at the Rancho Cucamonga DMV Office, authorities say.

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