A Centreville woman suspected of providing false documents enabling others to obtain Virginia driver's licenses by fraudulent means has been arrested and charged in Spotsylvania County. She is Ran Kim, 37, of Centreville.
However, nothing about her name or address is cut and dried. She has two or three aliases — including Kim Yoo Ran and Me Hyun Choi — and leases homes at 5707 Bent Tree Lane and 13835C Braddock Springs Road in Centreville. But some of her documents list her address as Springfield or Burke.
Suspecting Kim of uttering (presenting as real) a forged public document, Det. Douglas Comfort of the Fairfax County Police Department's Criminal Investigation Bureau, began an investigation. He explained the case against her in affidavits for search warrants for her Centreville homes, her Annandale place of business and her Lexus SUV parked outside that business.
He wrote that, on Nov. 25, 2003, at least three people entered the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office at the Springfield Mall and presented passports, rental contracts and marriage certificates issued by Fairfax County "as proof of legal residence and identification in an attempt to obtain Virginia driver's licenses."
However, a clerk became suspicious of the marriage certificates and contacted Circuit Court. The clerk then learned that "the names associated with the marriage certificates presented at the DMV were, in fact, not the names to which the certificates had originally been issued," wrote Comfort. "Further investigation revealed the date of issuance of the marriage license and the date the marriage ceremony had been performed were, in fact, altered from the original certificate."
OTHER MISTAKES also showed up. Comfort noted that the word "Virginia" at the bottom of the "A Copy Teste" stamp certifying the paper to be authentic was spelled "Virainia." And the actual seal used on the "A Copy Teste" certification was positively identified as not being the seal of the Fairfax County Circuit Court.
All three people fled the DMV office before law-enforcement authorities arrived, but arrest warrants were later obtained for them. Comfort learned that they had been accompanied by a "translator" who was not identified.
During his investigation, it was determined that three other false marriage certificates were also passed off at the DMV, resulting in fraudulent transactions. Then, with help from a Circuit Court clerk, Comfort wrote that he was able to "positively identify the marriage certificate that had been falsified as [allegedly] originally being issued to [Kim's husband] and Kim" — then going by the name "Kim Yoo Ran."
The detective stated that Ran was identified by her birth date and Social Security number, but with an address of 5400 Brixham Court in Burke. He then contacted DMV Special Agent Julian Saenz and requested a copy of the fictitious marriage certificate be circulated through the Northern Virginia DMV branches in an effort "to determine the scope of the fraud and assist in its prevention."
On Dec. 22, Comfort received a phone call from the DMV representative at Springfield Mall. This person stated that several people were in the DMV office presenting passports, bank statements and marriage certificates in an attempt to obtain driver's licenses. Wrote Comfort: "The representative further stated [that] the marriage certificate appeared to be the fictitious document from the Fairfax County Circuit Court."
COMFORT AND other law-enforcement officers responded to the DMV office and subsequently apprehended two people, Yong Zhe Li and Jin Woong Woo. "Recovered during the arrests were passports, a Wachovia bank statement and fictitious marriage certificates allegedly issued by the Fairfax County Circuit Court," wrote the detective.
"Li [reportedly] admitted his passport was a false document and that the passport and marriage certificate had been given to him as part of a package deal to obtain a Virginia driver's license for $2,700," continued Comfort. "The marriage certificates were directly linked to the false marriage certificates previously used in other fraud cases."
Five days later, on Dec. 27, Comfort received another phone call. But this one was from the DMV in Fredericksburg, Va. (Spotsylvania County). According to Comfort, the DMV representative told him that a person currently there was trying to obtain a driver's license with a fictitious marriage certificate issued in Fairfax County.
The caller also noted that the applicant was accompanied by a "translator." Comfort then asked the DMV representative to immediately contact the Sheriff's Office in Spotsylvania County and have someone apprehend that person.
Quickly complying, Spotsylvania County Deputy Sheriff Kevin Shanahan rushed over to the DMV and arrested both the applicant and the "translator." Comfort wrote that Shanahan allegedly identified the "translator" as Ran Kim of Bent Tree Lane in Centreville.
Furthermore, wrote the detective, Kim's "name, date of birth and Social Security number [reportedly] matched the female associated with the original marriage certificate issued by the Fairfax County Circuit Court which was being used as the template for the fictitious marriage certificate being uttered at various Virginia DMVs."
WHEN KIM was apprehended, wrote Comfort, she was allegedly "in possession of a Virginia driver's license identifying her as Me H. Choi," with a different birth date and Social Security number — and an address of 6518 Lee Valley Drive in Springfield. He noted that she also reportedly had in her possession "a notebook listing the names of several DMV offices she had been at, 'translating' for others, [plus] several of the fictitious marriage certificates and two passports — none of which belonged to her."
Comfort then obtained and executed a search warrant, last Monday, Dec. 29, at Ram's Bent Tree Lane address. He wrote that police recovered as evidence there a box of checks, bank statements and canceled checks listed to Jaeseoung Lee or Me Hyun Choi. They also seized a Social Security card for Choi.
"The Me Hyun Choi name and Social Security number was an exact match to the fictitious driver's license found in the possession of Ran Kim at the time of her arrest in Spotsylvania County on Dec. 27," wrote the detective. "Kim [allegedly] admitted she had fraudulently obtained the driver's license using said information."
Also on Dec. 29, Comfort received a fax from Det. T.J. Bryner of the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office. Included in it was a lease contract for the Braddock Springs Road address, dated Dec. 4, in the name of Me Hyun Choi. Comfort wrote that Choi reportedly paid cash for her apartment there.
On Dec. 29, 30 and 31, Fairfax County police executed search warrants at both of Kim's Centreville addresses and at her place of business — A & K Associates, an employment service on Backlick Road in Annandale. They also searched her Lexus parked at that address.
Police seized so many items that it took them 19 typed pages of inventory sheets to list them all. Below are just some of these items:
* From 5105-N Backlick Road:
A sheet of paper with Korean writing, with instructions on the reverse side on how to replace permanent resident card; a pack of six, residential-lease agreements, with five missing; a letter noting the transfer of two persons' bank account from one bank to another; a sheet of paper with an information template for an INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) document for someone living at the Shenandoah Crossing Apartments in Chantilly;
A PRINTED page of INS documents and prices; commercial bank-account deposit slips; pieces of paper with numerous names and birth dates, plus an address and a Social Security number; a list of Social Security offices in Northern Virginia; an adjustable date stamp; a document embossing-device with the seal removed; rubber stamps; computers; printer; a document seal-laminator; memory sticks; floppy disks;
A razor-bladed knife; carpenter's glue; a bag containing the contents of a shredder; a template of the rear page of a Korean passport for a particular person; an envelope containing a letter in Korean, except for the words, "$15,000" and "case sponsor;" a business stamp for "Translated by;" an envelope containing a check in the amount of $360, with the "payable" line blank; seven passport photos of three different persons, with document packets on each person;
A copy of a DMV Letter of Suspension to a particular person, with the driver's license number obliterated; a DMV publication, "Acceptable Documents for Obtaining a Driver's License;" a document in English and Korean with four names and various dollar amounts; a Social Security card stub for a person in Fair Lakes;
Folders labeled "DMV Information" and "Information about INS;" an envelope from the Department of Homeland Security containing INS forms and papers; Virginia, Maryland and Delaware driver's manuals; templates for passports and INS documents; and a stack of newspaper articles in Korean attached to real-estate agreements.
* From Bent Tree Lane:
A Korean Air Skypass for Kim; two MVP cards for Kim from Bally's Park Place and The Wild Wild West Casino; a U.S. government motor vehicle operator's ID card for Kim; a copy of her marriage certificate, in the name Ran Kim Yoo; bank-account documents; a copy of an INS form for someone; and a blank, DMV driver's license application.
* From Braddock Springs:
Korean passports and immigration papers for two, particular people, plus their boarding passes from Seoul to Washington, DMV license applications for them, a DMV receipt and suspension notice to one of them and their checks and check register — noting a check for $2,948 paid to Kim on Dec. 16;
Ledger books; passport photos; receipts for wire money transfers; Korean immigration arrival cards; and documents from the Korean Embassy authenticating ID documents.
* From Kim's Lexus:
Driver's manuals, copies of a Fairfax County marriage certificate with information eradicated; bank-deposit slips totaling $4,540 and the customer-service number for the Springfield DMV.