Former Massachusetts trooper ordered to forfeit $21K from CDL fraud scheme

A Former Massachusetts State Police (MSP) Sergeant has been ordered to return nearly $21,000 in proceeds from convicted offenses related to a multi-year commercial driver’s license (CDL) fraud scheme.

Nearly $21K To Be Forfeited In CDL Bribery Scheme

Former MSP Sergeant Gary Cederquist, 60, has been ordered to forfeit $20,961 in proceeds from a CDL fraud scheme in addition to his prison sentence, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation-Office of Inspector General.

On October 14, 2025, Cederquist was sentenced to 72 months in prison, 24 months of supervised release, a $30,000 fine, $18,300 in restitution, and a $4,800 special assessment. 

Cederquist was convicted by a federal jury in Boston in May 2025 on two counts of conspiracy to commit extortion, one count of extortion, six counts of honest services mail fraud, three counts of conspiracy to falsify records, 19 counts of falsification of records and 17 counts of false statements.

The jury found Cederquist guilty of orchestrating a series of schemes to give false passing scores to certain CDL applicants, including individuals who had failed or did not take the CDL skills test, as part of a multi-year bribery and extortion conspiracy.

Troopers Traded Passing CDL Test Scores For Bribes

In January 2024, Cederquist was charged as part of a 74-count indictment along with three other MSP troopers and two civilians.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office describes the scheme:

“Between in on or about February 2019 and January 2023, Cederquist arranged for him and his co-conspirators to give passing scores to at least three dozen applicants regardless of whether or not they had actually passed or, in some cases, had even taken the CDL skills test, including in some instances in exchange for bribes. Cederquist and his co-conspirators used the code word “golden handshake” or “golden” to identify applicants who received special treatment and were to be given passing scores on their skills tests regardless of performance. In text message conversations, Cederquist and his co-conspirators described a number of “golden” applicants as performing poorly on their skills tests. However, all of the applicants received passing scores.

Among the CDL applicants to whom Cederquist gave preferential treatment were six MSP Troopers who Cederquist falsely reported as having passed a Class A skills test. In reality, however, the Troopers did not take a real CDL skills test. For four of the Trooper applicants, Cederquist conspired with his friend Camara, who worked for a truck-driving school in Brockton, to accomplish this offense.

Cederquist also conspired with his friend Mathison, who worked for a water company that employed drivers who needed CDLs, to give passing scores to certain applicants affiliated with the water company. In exchange for the passing scores, Cederquist accepted bribes – for years – of free inventory from the water company, such as cases of bottled Fiji, VOSS and Essentia water, cases of bottled Arizona Iced Tea, coffee and tea products and boxes of Twizzlers and Swedish Fish, all of which Mathison delivered to an office trailer at the CDL test site in Stoughton. Cederquist sent Mathison a text describing one of these applicants as “an idiot,” who had “no idea what he’s doing,” and “should have failed about 10 times already.” Cederquist then texted Mathison that Mathison’s boss “owes big time.”

In exchange for using his official position to give preferential treatment to certain CDL applicants, Cederquist accepted a variety of bribes including inventory from Mathison’s water company valued in the thousands of dollars; a $750 granite post and mailbox; a new driveway valued at over $10,000; and a snowblower valued at nearly $2,000. Cederquist described one such applicant as “horrible,” and “brain dead,” but gave him a passing score anyway in exchange for the snowblower.“