Three defendants have pled guilty in a CDL fraud scheme, according to a press release from the Department of Transportations’s Office of Inspector General (DOT-OIG).
On July 27, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Jonathan Parsons and Marline Roberts, third-party Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) testers, and Mahmoud Alhattab, a restaurant owner and ringleader of the scheme, pleaded guilty to one count of bribery concerning programs receiving Federal funds.
The grand jury indicted Parsons, Roberts, and Alhattab on August 28, 2025. According to the indictment, between approximately August 2020 and February 2024, the defendants conspired to defraud Louisiana’s CDL program through a scheme to solicit and accept bribes. As a result, over 100 individuals obtained CDLs without meeting either Federal or State requirements.
DOT-OIG is conducting this investigation jointly with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles.
Bruce Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has lived in three states including Arkansas, Missouri and Georgia. During his nearly 20-year career, Bruce has served as managing editor and sports editor for numerous publications. He and his wife, Dana, who is also a journalist, are based in Carrollton, Georgia.
