Cuban citizen sentenced to prison for Texas CDL fraud

Authorities in Texas have sentenced a Cuban man to nearly a year in prison for his role in a scheme to issue fraudulent Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDL).

On November 29, 2022, Fernando Guardado Vazquez was sentenced to 11 months in prison by the the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. He was also ordered to serve 36 months of supervised release, and to pay a $100 special assessment.

In May 2022, Vazquez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and honest services fraud.

According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector (DOT-OIG), from January 2017 to about June 2019, Vazquez and two co-conspirators paid a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) employee to falsely certify that CDL applicants had passed the skills portion of the CDL test. However, those applicants had either failed or had not taken the test, officials say.

The case was investigated by DOT-OIG, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Texas DPS-Texas Rangers Division.