Prison term handed down in exam scam case

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Four defendants have now been sentenced for their roles in a test score-fixing scheme at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Regional Exam Center (REC) New Orleans in in Mandeville, La.

One of the four, Alonzo Williams, who pleaded guilty to being an intermediary in the scheme, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Barry W. Ashe to 40 months incarceration to be followed by three years of supervised release.

Three others. Quang Tran, Harry Johnson, and James Carr, who each pleaded guilty to unlawfully receiving an officer-level mariner license, were sentenced by Judge Ashe to a year of probation and 100 hours of community service on October 28, December 8, and December 9, 2021 respectively

All 28 maritime industry workers charged in the November 2020 indictment have been convicted—24 pleaded guilty to unlawfully receiving licenses and four pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States by acting as intermediaries in the scheme.

The other three defendants in the November indictment—Dorothy Smith, Eldridge Johnson, and Beverly McCrary—are former Coast Guard employees charged with conspiring to defraud the United States and are awaiting trial.

Also awaiting trial are eight mariners charged with unlawfully receiving licenses in a separate, recently filed, indictment.

The indictments allege that the licenses at issue were unlawfully obtained though false exam scores entered by Smith, who is accused of using a network of intermediaries to obtain payments from the mariners.