WASHINGTON – A Philadelphia woman was convicted Sept. 20 for her participation in a fraud scheme to provide out-of-state residents with Pennsylvania driver’s licenses and Pennsylvania commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs).

After a five-day trial, a federal jury in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania found Irina Rakhman, 54, guilty of conspiracy to produce fraudulent identification documents. 

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, eight co-defendants have pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme: Vitaliy and Tatyana Kroshnev, Mikhail Aminov, Irina Peterson, Khrystyna Davyda, Leonid Vilchik, Tair Rustamov and Irina Starovoyt. Vitaliy Kroshnev also pleaded guilty to making a material false statement.

According to evidence presented at trial, Rakhman and her co-defendants used a company owned by the Kroshnevs, International Training Academy (ITA), to arrange for hundreds of non-residents of Pennsylvania to fraudulently obtain Pennsylvania driver’s licenses and CDLs from 2006 to 2010. The defendants provided applicants with false Pennsylvania residency documents, as well as foreign language interpreters who, under the guise of providing translations, gave CDL applicants the answers to the written CDL permit test. 

The evidence at trial also established that the Kroshnevs paid members of the conspiracy, including Rakhman, for allowing their home addresses to be used by ITA clients who resided out of state to submit to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation as false proof of Pennsylvania residency.   

All defendants face a maximum possible sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the conspiracy charge. All defendants are scheduled for sentencing in November and December.

The FBI and the Department of Transportation-Office of Inspector General investigated the case.