Sterling Husband and Wife Indicted in DMV Bribery Scheme

ALEXANDRIA, VA—Jose Calderon and Noemi Barboza, both 42 and of Sterling, Virginia, were indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday on conspiracy and bribery of an employee of a state agency receiving federal assistance.

Dana J. Boente, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement.

Calderon and Barboza face a maximum penalty of 10 years if convicted.

According to the indictment, from September 2007 to July 2010, the defendants solicited cash payments from undocumented aliens in return for helping them secure DMV documents for which they were not eligible. After the defendants collected cash from ineligible applicants, they provided a DMV employee a portion of the money to induce her to falsely verify that the ineligible applicants had produced documentation necessary to establish eligibility for issuance of the requested DMV documents. The defendants also accompanied ineligible applicants to the DMV Service Center located at the Fair Oaks Mall and directed them to the DMV employee who had accepted bribes.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Rebeca H. Bellows is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

Criminal indictments are only charges and not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty.

Any person who believes they may have information regarding public corruption in the Northern Virginia area is encouraged to call the FBI’s Northern Virginia Public Corruption Hotline at 703-686-6225.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae.