Man Pleads Guilty to Obtaining Driver’s Licenses for Ineligible Applicants

A Connecticut man has pleaded guilty to conspiring to obtain driver’s licenses for ineligible applicants, principally illegal aliens, federal prosecutors reported.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts said that Cesar Agusto Martin Reis of Waterbury pleaded guilty on June 13, 2025 before U.S. District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman, who scheduled sentencing for Sept. 10, 2025.

In December 2024, Reis was charged along with four co-conspirators. According to the charging documents, from about November 2020 through September 2024, they fraudulently procured driver’s licenses for illegal alien customers who resided in states that prohibited illegal aliens from obtaining driver’s licenses.

Prior to July 2023, illegal aliens residing in Massachusetts were not permitted to obtain Massachusetts driver’s licenses. Beginning in 2019, illegal aliens residing in New York became eligible to obtain New York driver’s licenses. Reis and his alleged co-conspirators conspired to fraudulently obtain New York driver’s licenses for illegal alien customers who did not reside in New York, including Massachusetts residents, and after July 2023 to fraudulently obtain Massachusetts driver’s licenses for illegal alien customers who did not reside in Massachusetts.

In exchange for fraudulently obtaining the driver’s licenses, Reis and his alleged co-conspirators typically charged approximately $1,400 per customer. Collectively, prosecutors said they fraudulently applied for licenses for more than 1,000 customers, obtained licenses for more than 600 of the customers, and collected at least hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In New York, before obtaining a driver’s license, applicants were required to pass a written permit test and complete driver’s education coursework from a New York driving school. Online permit test-takers were required by the New York Department of Motor Vehicles (NY DMV) to take a picture of themselves with a web camera during the test to ensure that the test-taker was indeed the applicant.

To avoid the customers having to take the permit tests, Reis obtained several pictures of the customers sitting down, making it look as if the customers were taking the tests. He conspired to complete the permit tests for the customers online and and to upload the pictures purporting to show that it was the customers who were taking the tests. The defendants also allegedly created fraudulent driver’s education certificates of completion.

The NY DMV also required that applicants appear to prove their identity and residence in New York. Reis would meet Massachusetts-based customers in Massachusetts and drive them to NY DMV branch locations. where they allegedly gave the customers documents falsely purporting to demonstrate that they resided in New York. Reis arranged for the NY DMV to mail the permits to locations in New York that he controlled and provided the permits to the customers in-person.

Additionally, they allegedly drove applicants to New York for them to take the required road tests. If the customers passed the tests, the NY DMV sent the driver’s licenses to mailing addresses in New York that the defendants allegedly controlled, and the defendants then provided the licenses to the customers.

They allegedly conspired to obtain Massachusetts driver’s licenses for out-of-state residents in generally the same manner.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Topics Personal Auto