ASSISTANT U.S. Attorney Albert Flores Jr. has recommended a prison sentence of 60 months or five years and a $15,000 fine for former Bureau of Motor Vehicles Director Juana Leon Guerrero.
Leon Guerrero has admitted her involvement in the production of fraudulent CNMI driver’s licenses.
According to Flores, a sentence above the guideline range is warranted in Leon Guerrero’s case “because the public harm caused by the defendant is practically impossible to quantify.”
Flores said Leon Guerrero was a longstanding chief of the BMV and was serving as the acting Department of Public Safety commissioner when the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant at the BMV on Dec. 16, 2022.
Flores said as a senior law enforcement officer of the CNMI, Leon Guerrero was entrusted to serve as an enforcer of the law.
“Instead, she fostered an environment of systemic corruption, her actions endangered public safety by arming unqualified drivers to operate vehicles on the roadways, and she grossly violated the trust of the public which damaged the credibility of the CNMI government. Tragically, it will be a long road for the people of the CNMI to regain the trust of the…BMV,” Flores said.
A sentencing hearing for Leon Guerrero is scheduled for Dec. 15, at 9 a.m. before Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI.
Leon Guerrero’s attorney, Robert T. Torres, previously told reporters that his client had pled guilty to conspiracy to produce an unlawful document, and that he was recommending a prison sentence of no less than two years.
According to the statement of facts in the plea agreement, Leon Guerrero began employment at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in 1992 and remained continuously employed through her eventual appointment as chief of the BMV in 2006. She remained chief until she was placed on administrative leave without pay in March 2023 following her indictment.
According to the indictment, on or about Jan. 1, 2020 through on or about Dec. 20, 2022, Leon Guerrero knowingly and intentionally conspired and agreed with Yongde Li, also known as “Ivan”; fellow employees of the BMV; residents of the CNMI without lawful immigration status; and others, to commit an offense against the United States: specifically, to knowingly and without lawful authority produce an identification document — namely, a CNMI driver’s license.
On or about Jan. 1, 2020 through on or about Dec. 20, 2022, on 60 occasions, Leon Guerrero knowingly permitted “Ivan,” a citizen of the People’s Republic of China without lawful immigration status in the United States but a resident of the CNMI, to bring other citizens of the PRC and of other nationalities without lawful immigration status in the United States, to the BMV, where those foreign citizens were subsequently issued fraudulent CNMI driver’s licenses.
Ivan arrived in the CNMI from China on March 27, 2012, and his legal immigration status expired on March 26, 2013.
Represented by attorney Janet King, Ivan pled guilty on July 11, 2023, and will also be sentenced on Dec. 15, 2023.
