The ringleader in a scheme to get illegal immigrants Georgia driver’s licenses has been sentenced to more than four years in federal prison.
Zhong Liang Li, also known as Ken Li, was sentenced Monday. Li, 34, was convicted in December after a four day trial in federal court in Atlanta.
Li, who advertised in a Chinese language newspaper distributed in major cities with large Chinese-speaking populations, promised to get drivers’ licenses for those who did not have the required documentation.
Hundreds responded to the ads in the World Journal.
Li or one of his two partners would meet the immigrants at a gas station or shopping center in Atlanta and drive them to Thomasville in South Georgia.
Li, who lived in Thomasville from 1998 until 2006 before moving to Brooklyn, N.Y., worked with Cleveland Spencer, a state Department of Drivers Services examiner, giving Spencer up to $500 for each of the 300 fraudulent licenses issued without documentation of residency and without a written or road test, according to testimony. In some cases, the names and addresses on those licenses were fake.
Li paid Guo Xing Song, who also was known as Andi Chen, and Zhong Hua Li, who also went by the name John, to drive their customers to South Georgia. For a time, Song also place ads and answered phones for Ken Li.
Song, Spencer and John Li have already been convicted and sentenced to prison.
Spencer, 47, was sentenced to two years in federal prison. Song, 44, of Charlotte, N.C., was sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison. John Li, 32, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was sentenced to a year in prison.
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