Ex-BMV chief’s co-defendant detained anew

The co-defendant of former Bureau of Motor Vehicles chief Juana Deleon Guerrero in the license fraud case, who is out in public pending his sentencing, has been detained anew after the U.S. District Court for the NMI revoked his pretrial release.

In an appearance last week before U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona, Li Yongde, through his lawyer, Janet King, admitted to the allegations that he violated the conditions of his pretrial release. Those allegations, as reported by U.S. Probation officer David-Atalig, included driving a vehicle multiple times while on bail, even though the prohibition against driving was one of the conditions of Li’s release.

In addition, Li lied in his reports to the U.S. Probation Office when he claimed he was never questioned nor arrested by law enforcement when in fact he was stopped multiple times on different traffic violations like driving without a license, speeding, and others.

Li was released on his own recognizance in March.

At the revocation hearing, assistant U.S. Attorney Albert Flores recommended revocation of the pretrial release, while King recommended that Li remain released.

After reviewing the U.S Probation officer’s report, Manglona granted the petition to revoke Li’s release and ordered that he be remanded immediately to the custody of the U.S. Marshals while he awaits sentencing.

Li, like Deleon Guerrero, will be sentenced this Friday, Dec. 15.

While the prosecution has notified the court that it will recommend a sentence of 14 months for Li, King has requested that the court consider a 12-month sentence instead.

According to Flores, who has served as the head prosecutor in this case, the government is recommending the high end of the sentencing guidelines for Li—which the government anticipates to be 14 months—because he was at the heart of the corrupt scheme to provide fraudulent licenses to illegal immigrants.

“Defendant is at the very heart of the corruption scheme that has plagued the CNMI BMV for years. A well-known ‘street broker,’ defendant is the ‘go-to’ person for foreign nationals, typically citizens of the People’s Republic of China, without lawful immigration status…who need a CNMI driver license,” he said.

Flores further argues that a 14-month sentence is warranted as Li used the relationships he formed with employees at BMV over the years, to include the BMV chief, to facilitate his scheme where he made upwards of $1,700 for the unlawful production of driver licenses.

“The rampant unlawful driver license scheme facilitated by defendant fostered an environment of systemic corruption at the CNMI BMV, and endangered public safety by arming unqualified drivers to operate vehicles on roadways. How the CNMI recovers from this corruption, regains trust of the BMV, and perhaps reconciles safety concerns pertaining to the number of persons operating motor vehicles who do not understand CNMI traffic laws is a grave question. We can only pray that one of the drivers operating a motor vehicle on the roadways of the CNMI because of defendant’s fraudulent driver license scheme, does not cause an undeserved injury to an unsuspecting citizen or guest of the CNMI,” he said.

On the other hand, King argues that a 12-month sentence is justified because Li cooperated with the FBI, which led to the conviction of the BMV director, and that her client’s cooperation also allowed for surveillance and other activities that uncovered other potentially criminally liable BMV employees.

“The defendant was a part of the scheme, but he never could have produced a single CNMI driver’s license without the employees and the BMV director. They were behind the BMV counter, creating and issuing the driver’s licenses. Another critical factor that the court must consider is that the defendant continued to cooperate with the United States even after he [has already pleaded] guilty. …It is not his fault if his information was already repeatedly provided to the FBI and nothing new is available to him to further their ongoing investigations,” she said.

King also insists that Deleon Guerrero and her employees ultimately fostered corruption, and Li was just a small part of that already existing corrupt system.

“The people who received driver’s licenses were without lawful immigration status, and it was not about whether they could drive safely on the roadways. However, none of these clarifications excuse or justify the crimes. He should be punished, and he accepts that a term of imprisonment will be his punishment, but when imposing the sentence in this matter, the court must punish the defendant with a sentence commensurate to the crimes and his culpability. The defendant’s sentence of 12 months would not raise concerns of sentence disparity between other defendants with similar records with driver’s license cases. This sentence would be appropriate considering the defendant’s lack of a criminal history,” she said.

According to the unsealed information, from about Jan. 1, 2020, through about Dec. 20, 2022, on at least 50 occasions, Deleon Guerrero conspired with Li, or “Ivan,” fellow BMV employees, residents of the CNMI without lawful immigration status, and others, to produce CNMI driver licenses for 10 individuals without valid and current legal immigration status.