Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York announced charges on May 20, 2026, against 11 defendants accused of running a coordinated scheme to obtain fraudulent temporary license plates and use them to evade approximately $15 million in tolls, parking violations, and traffic tickets [1]. U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton made the announcement alongside James C. Barnacle Jr. of the FBI New York Field Office [1]. The lead defendant, Felix DeJesus Jimenez, is alleged to have organized the operation [1].
Prosecutors allege the defendants fraudulently obtained temporary tags, commonly issued by dealers at the point of vehicle sale, and distributed them to drivers who used the plates to avoid detection by automated toll readers and traffic enforcement cameras [1]. The charges include wire fraud and access device fraud, the latter arising from the alleged misuse of account and registration data embedded in the tag-issuance process [1]. The scheme's scale is reflected in a striking enforcement footprint: temporary plates linked to the defendants were connected to approximately 1,200 incidents reported to the NYPD, including at least six homicides [1]. That connection does not charge the defendants with the homicides, but prosecutors cited it to illustrate how fraudulent plates allowed vehicles to operate without traceable registration, complicating investigations across multiple offense categories.
The case arrives against a broader national backdrop of law enforcement concern over temporary plate abuse. Fake or extended temp tags have been documented in jurisdictions from Texas to New Jersey as a tool for evading both civil fees and criminal detection. The SDNY prosecution is among the most expansive federal cases to frame the conduct as a coordinated criminal enterprise rather than isolated regulatory violations, pressing wire fraud statutes, 18 U.S.C. § 1343, and access device fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1029 against a named ring of defendants [1].
All 11 defendants were arrested in connection with the announcement [1]. The case is being prosecuted by the SDNY and investigated jointly by the FBI New York Field Office and the NYPD [1]. No trial date has been set publicly. If convicted on the lead wire fraud counts, defendants face statutory maximums of 20 years per count, with access device fraud carrying up to 10 years [1].