Federal prosecutors charged 31 individuals related to a yearslong test score-fixing scheme at a U.S. Coast Guard exam center in Louisiana.
Prosecutors allege that over the course of seven years, Dorothy Smith, a credentialing specialist at the Mandeville testing center, “engaged in a scheme to defraud the United States” by accepting bribes in return for fixing tests so applicants could obtain licenses to serve in various positions aboard Coast Guard vessels.
The indictment outlined a plot of “deceit, craft, trickery, and dishonest means” of falsely reporting that applicants “had appeared for examinations, had passed examinations, had achieved certain examination module scores, had fulfilled certain requirements for endorsements, and should receive certain endorsements and credentials.”
“Smith took bribes to fix exam scores, enabling license applicants to bypass the required testing,” the Department of Justice said in a press release. “This resulted in the applicants illegally obtaining a range of licenses for officer-level positions, including the most important positions on vessels, such as master, chief mate, and chief engineer.”
The indictment named two former Coast Guard employees and a number of maritime industry workers among Smith’s “network of intermediaries” that she used “to connect her to maritime workers who were willing to pay for false exam scores.” According to the DOJ, these intermediaries “would funnel money and the mariners’ request to Smith, who would falsely report in a Coast Guard computer system that the mariners had passed the exams.”
Four of the intermediaries allegedly had their own tests fixed by Smith, according to the Associated Press. In total, 24 current and former merchant mariners were charged with the unlawful obtainment of officer-level licenses. Some defendants received falsified scores “on multiple occasions.”
If convicted, each defendant could face up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, three years of supervised release, and a mandatory special assessment.
