Driving school owner gets 1 day in jail for RMV bribery scheme

Local News

“Mr. Cardoso participated in a long-term public corruption scheme that endangered public safety by putting unqualified drivers on the road.”

A former Brockton driving school owner was sentenced to one day in prison for bribing the road test examiner to issue driver’s licenses to people who either failed or did not complete road tests, federal prosecutors said.

Carlos Cardosa, 72, was sentenced on Friday to time served, amounting to one day in prison, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley’s office announced Monday. Cardosa will then serve six months of a two-year supervised release sentence in home incarceration, prosecutors said. He will also pay a $5,500 fine.

Cardosa was initially charged in 2024 and pleaded guilty last year to one count of honest services mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud, prosecutors said.

Cardosa was accused of paying an employee at the Brockton Registry of Motor Vehicles no less than $20,000 for between 100 and 300 applicants over a period of 18 months, from August 2019 to April 2021.

“To put it plainly, Mr. Cardoso participated in a long-term public corruption scheme that endangered public safety by putting unqualified drivers on the road,” prosecutors wrote in court documents. 

However, the sentence recommended is “a downward departure” due to “unusual and extraordinary health problems Mr. Cardoso is suffering as a result of a vicious, random assault in 2022,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum.

According to federal court documents, Cardosa and his “co-conspirator,” the unnamed employee at the Brockton RMV, conspired “to enrich themselves personally.” Cardosa was accused of accepting payments from people with learner’s permits and paying cash bribes and kickbacks to the RMV employee who falsely recorded the test results, the indictment said.

In 2023, a former Brockton RMV manager pleaded guilty to federal charges connected to issuing passing learner’s permit test scores in exchange for bribes. In 2022, four employees at that RMV were fired after more than 2,000 licenses were issued without road tests.

Molly Farrar is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on education, politics, crime, and more.