Jury begins deliberation in driver’s license case

Defendant charged with 110 felonies in fraud scheme

A jury on Friday afternoon began deliberations in a criminal case that charges Gordon Leong, 24, with 110 felony counts in connection with a scheme for foreign nationals to fraudulently obtain driver’s licenses in New Mexico.

The licenses were issued by the Motor Vehicle Department or its private contractors to Chinese nationals who flew in and out of New Mexico on a quick turnaround to acquire them. When state Taxation and Revenue discovered the alleged conspiracy, the licenses were cancelled.

Prosecutors dropped some counts of the original indictment, which contained nearly 400 individual crimes, and District Judge Brett Loveless further whittled down the package that went to jurors.

The charges include forgery, making a false affidavit, racketeering and conspiracy.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph Spindle explained that four counts each relate to 27 persons who applied for driver’s licenses with false affidavits of residence. Twenty one of them listed addresses where Leong had signed the lease, most of them efficiency apartments where only a single resident was permitted by the property managers.

As outlined at the outset of trial, the clients

seeking New Mexico licenses were individuals who had seen ads placed in a Chinese newspaper in New York. They were directed to businesses, including a restaurant and a nail salon, and were given instructions.

Spindle said the evidence had shown the New York contact, Tin Cheung, required a $500 deposit, told clients to fly to New Mexico and to call him upon arrival. When they did, they were met at the airport by a man in a gray or silver vehicle identified as Leong who took them to various locations to make their license applications. Leong served as a translator, but sometimes identified himself as a notary, Spindle said, referring to testimony by an MVD office director who recalled seeing Leong dozens of times.

Licenses were sent to addresses where only Leong or Cheung would have access to the mailbox, Spindle said.

The jury heard from two of the individuals who sought licenses, Shu Sheng Lui and Fongyee Hiew, whose initial charges were dropped after they entered pleas to petty misdemeanors.

Leong’s attorney, Erlinda Ocampo Johnson, told jurors they had been asked to speculate based upon an investigation that she called “shoddy,” “poor” and “inadequate.”

“The state brought many witnesses with a motive to embellish or outright lie,” she said.

Johnson pointed out that the trial involved a “hot-button issue” of providing licenses to undocumented foreign nationals, which Spindle had said only New Mexico and Washington states allow. Johnson said the prosecution had asked the jury to “go from A to Z, skipping all the other letters in the alphabet.”