Case # 16NF1560
Date: September 27, 2016
DMV EMPLOYEE CONVICTED OF ILLEGALLY TAKING PUBLIC FUNDS FOR PERSONAL USE THROUGH FRAUDULENT VEHICLE REGISTRATION TRANSACTIONS
SANTA ANA, Calif. – A California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) employee was convicted and sentenced today for illegally taking money from vehicle registration fees for personal use through fraudulent transactions. Sunila Dang, 48, Diamond Bar, pleaded guilty today, Sept. 27, 2016, to five felony counts of misappropriation of public funds and five felony counts of altering public documents. Pursuant to the court’s offer, Dang was sentenced to six months in jail to be served in home confinement and restitution.
At the time of the crime, Dang worked as an employee at the DMV in Placentia. Between Jan. 31, 2014, and Feb. 28, 2014, Dang processed cars to be “junked.” If cash was previously paid toward the car’s registration fees, but the registration was never completed, then those credits became state money at the time a vehicle was registered as junked.
On five separate occasions, when a cash paying customer, who had no connection to the junked car with a credit, brought in a car or group of cars (bundled cars) for registration, Dang temporarily transferred ownership to include the junked car into the bundled cars. This allowed her to access the existing credit on the junked car.
She used the credit from the junked vehicle to pay the DMV fees of the bundled cars and kept the money for herself that the customer believed was being used to pay for the registration fees. After the transaction was cleared, Dang finalized the junked vehicle transaction after the credit had been removed. She stole over $2,200 through these transactions. The DMV Investigations Division investigated this case.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Brock Zimmon of the Special Prosecutions prosecuted this case.