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Truck driver sentenced in CDL testing fraud scheme

Aziz Akhrorov recruited New York-based CDL applicants to fraudulently obtain learners’ permits and photo IDs in Florida.

   A Queens, N.Y.-based truck driver was sentenced Dec. 4 for his role in a commercial driver’s license testing fraud scheme.
   Aziz Akhrorov was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., to time served, a $1,000 fine and a $100 special court assessment. 
   Akhrorov pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to unlawfully produce CDLs. DOT regulations require states to test the knowledge and skills of all CDL applicants. From approximately April 2014 to around December 2016, Akhrorov and Taras Chabanovych, a Florida-based co-conspirator, undermined the CDL testing procedures at the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (DOT OIG).   
   Akhrorov recruited New York-based CDL applicants, most of whom were of Russian descent, and referred them to Chabanovych. DOT OIG said that for as much as $2,600 per referral, Chabanovych helped the CDL applicants fraudulently obtain documentation establishing bogus Florida residency, which allowed them to sit for the exam. He also provided sophisticated video and audio devices, which were concealed on the applicants and transmitted the CDL test to him offsite. Then, through an earpiece, Chabanovych gave the applicants the correct answers. 
   Due to this cheating scheme, Florida CDL learners’ permits and photo IDs were issued to the applicants, who later exchanged them for New York CDLs, DOT OIG said.
   Chabanovych pleaded guilty and was sentenced in October.

Kim Link Wills

Senior Editor Kim Link-Wills has written about everything from agriculture as a reporter for Illinois Agri-News to zoology as editor of the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine. Her work has garnered awards from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Magazine Association of the Southeast. Prior to serving as managing editor of American Shipper, Kim spent more than four years with XPO Logistics.