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CLT UPDATE
Sunday, May 8, 2016
Yet another RMV fiasco
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5 Investigates uncovers a web of lies that allowed cars to be
registered in Massachusetts in a dead person's name, a scheme
that police say at least in part was to further a cocaine and
heroin distribution ring in Boston and on the South Shore.
It’s all under investigation as officials want to know
whether someone inside the Registry of Motor Vehicles is
actually assisting the criminals, 5 Investigates’ Mike Beaudet
has learned.
The case coming to light is over the numerous vehicles
registered in the identity of Kennedy U. Ruiz, 34, of Lowell. He
died Feb. 1, 2011 after a stroke.
Since his date of death, 22 vehicles were registered in his
name, the RMV confirmed to 5 Investigates.
“Shouldn't the Registry be able to figure out if someone's
dead?” Beaudet asked Gov. Charlie Baker, R-Mass.
“First of all, registering cars using false identification is
obviously a crime,” Baker replied....
Chip Faulkner with Citizens for Limited Taxation
said he can’t understand why the RMV can't figure out if a car
is being registered in a dead person's name.
“It looks like the drug dealers are outsmarting the
Registry,” Beaudet asked him.
“That is a frightening thought,” Faulkner said. “I can't
understand how this can happen in a supposedly efficient
bureaucracy.”
WCVB TV5
Thursday, May 5, 2016
5 Investigates:
Death no barrier to RMV granting car registrations, 5
Investigates finds
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
In its ongoing investigation focused on
waste, fraud, and abuse at the Registry of Motor Vehicles,
Mike Beaudet of WCVB TV5's investigative team struck again,
uncovering numerous vehicles being registered to a dead
person apparently by drug-dealers.
I'd have thought, with all of today's
computerization, data-mining, information sharing, and the bureaucratic
hoops we law-abiding drivers must jump through to be legally on the
road, something simple like registering a number of cars to a dead man
would be impossible.
Not so, it turns out.
Click the graphic above
or
here to watch the report
The Massachusetts RMV is right up there with the
IRS as a government agency citizens most love to hate. I
wonder why it remains so exposed to such incredible lapses and
boondoggles?
This is the same Registry of Motor Vehicles cash cow which, in
2014, was raking in almost $600 million in fees every year —
about ten times what it costs to operate the agency.
That was before the Patrick administration hiked some
RMV fees to generate an additional $55 million to $63 million in
fiscal year 2015, squeezing a total of over $655 million annually from Bay State
motorists.
On June 30, 2014 The Springfield Republican reported
("Vehicle
inspection, registration and road test fees to increase at the Mass.
Registry of Motor Vehicles"):
"By law, the
RMV is required to collect fees for such transactions. The fees
are determined by the state Executive Office for Administration
and Finance."
That determination was a direct response to
CLT's 1989-1992 lawsuit challenging the Dukakis administration's
unilateral fee increases: Ford (yeah, me) vs. (Secretary of
Administration and Finance) Lashman. Before our case reached a
Superior Court decision, William Weld was elected governor,
replacing Michael Dukakis. The Weld administration
settled with us out-of-court, pledged in writing that all fees
would be reviewed and any increases would be based upon the Supreme
Judicial Court's criteria as expressed in its
"Emerson"
decision in 1984.
So here's a state agency that's picking our pockets
for over $655 million every year — more
than ten times its cost to operate —
but can't stop drug-dealers from registering their delivery vehicles to phantom dead
people.
So much for "you get what you pay for"
— so often the case in Taxachusetts.
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WCVB TV5
Thursday, May 5, 2016
5 Investigates:
Death no barrier to RMV granting car registrations, 5
Investigates finds
By Mike Beaudet
BOSTON —5 Investigates uncovers a web of lies that allowed
cars to be registered in Massachusetts in a dead person's
name, a scheme that police say at least in part was to
further a cocaine and heroin distribution ring in Boston and
on the South Shore.
It’s all under investigation as officials want to know
whether someone inside the Registry of Motor Vehicles is
actually assisting the criminals, 5 Investigates’ Mike
Beaudet has learned.
The case coming to light is over the numerous vehicles
registered in the identity of Kennedy U. Ruiz, 34, of
Lowell. He died Feb. 1, 2011 after a stroke.
Since his date of death, 22 vehicles were registered in his
name, the RMV confirmed to 5 Investigates.
“Shouldn't the Registry be able to figure out if someone's
dead?” Beaudet asked Gov. Charlie Baker, R-Mass.
“First of all, registering cars using false identification
is obviously a crime,” Baker replied.
Baker confirmed that an investigation into the registrations
is underway. 5 Investigates has learned the Massachusetts
Insurance Fraud Bureau is also looking into it.
“To me, the big question here is, ‘Did this involve somebody
inside the Registry, yes or no?’ And the second one is,
‘What's the gap on our processes where the Registry needs to
fix?’” Baker said.
The apparent registration fraud was uncovered during a drug
investigation, when detectives were watching cars used by
suspected dealers to deliver heroin and cocaine.
“We learned that the registered owner was dead,” said
Braintree Police Det. Mark Sherrick. “I thought it was
strange.”
Sherrick’s investigation started in 2014 and eventually led
to several arrests, including four people in Boston who are
facing drug trafficking charges in Suffolk Superior Court.
“They would take a car that was already parked there. Park
the car they showed up in and go out and start conducting
business,” Sherrick said.
Sherrick says cars keep drug runners in business.
“When you're selling drugs 24 hours a day, seven days a week
in the same neighborhoods they need to keep swapping cars,
not seeing the same cars over and over and over again,”
Sherrick said.
One of the cars followed during Sherrick’s investigation
came back registered to Ruiz, and registered after his 2011
death.
Not only was it registered in the deceased Ruiz’s name, it
was registered at the address of a house in Sharon once
belonging to William R. Keating, the former Norfolk District
Attorney who is now a Massachusetts congressman.
Three cars in all were registered in Ruiz’s name at the
Sharon house, though all were registered after Keating sold
his house.
“I'd gotten these letters in the mail for this individual I
assumed was the former owner and that they simply weren't
paying up the tolls and the taxes on their cars or
whatever,” said Will Wray, who lives in the Sharon house now
and has been receiving mail in Ruiz’s name for the last few
years.
He had no idea why until 5 Investigates’ contacted him.
“I assumed it was because a congressman used to live here
and they had some sort of twisted sense of irony,” Wray
said.
Chip Faulkner with Citizens for Limited Taxation
said he can’t understand why the RMV can't figure out if a
car is being registered in a dead person's name.
“It looks like the drug dealers are outsmarting the
Registry,” Beaudet asked him.
“That is a frightening thought,” Faulkner said. “I can't
understand how this can happen in a supposedly efficient
bureaucracy.”
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NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665
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