LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A former clerk at a Kentucky driver’s licensing branch said co-workers sold illegal immigrants driver’s licenses they couldn’t legally obtain, charging $200 per license.
Melissa Moorman claims the scheme happened four or five times a day for at least two years at multiple branches across the state. According to a whistleblower lawsuit, when Moorman alerted the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to the scam, she was fired.
“The employees were being paid under the table,” Moorman told WDRB News. “I immediately let my supervisor know.”
Moorman worked at Louisville’s Nia Center Licensing Branch through Quantum Solutions, a staffing service contracted by the commonwealth to supplement personnel at regional offices.
WDRB first reported on the state’s license fraud investigation in April after obtaining a leaked revocation notice. According to documents obtained through an open records requests, KYTC sent 1,546 letters warning recipients of “irregularities” in their licenses, saying they were “issued in error … invalid and will be canceled” and threatening criminal charges if the license wasn’t returned.
At that time, KYTC confirmed at least two terminations — one at the Nia Center in west Louisville and another at the Elizabethtown branch — but wouldn’t release details. The cabinet denied requests for public documents on resignations, terminations and letters sent to drivers, citing ongoing investigations with Kentucky State Police and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In total, KYTC withheld 2,300 records.
But Moorman’s account offers new details. She said she was unwillingly roped into the scam when two co-workers began using her computer login, something her supervisor asked her to share because not all employees had their own and she was training as a supervisor. The same co-workers had previously invited her to join a “business venture.”
“I was asked to bring certain customers in,” Moorman said. “They are brought in to me without a sign-in, and you would scan their documents as usual.”
Moorman said those documents, including social security cards and birth certificates, were made to look real and used to issue illegal immigrants driver’s permits and licenses who never took the tests.
In October 2024, Moorman said she wrote a letter along with her supervisor to notify KYTC about the scheme. She said the fraud relied on skipping Homeland Security background checks, which she discovered when transactions were processed under her name while she was away from her desk.
In October 2024, Melissa Moorman said she wrote a letter along with her supervisor to notify KYTC about the scheme.
“I start getting these emails saying ‘Are you doing this? Are you doing this?'” Moorman said “I’m not there for the day. So things start kind of coming together. I’m like ‘What’s going on?'”
According to her lawsuit, the two workers she reported — who WDRB isn’t naming because they haven’t been charged criminally — were fired in late 2024. In January 2025, a detective came to interview Moorman at work. She said she was terminated that same day.
“I came to work, and my computer was turned off … that was it.” Moorman said “It was a gut punch. I was still in my supervisor training… It was a very good job for me.”
In April, KYTC said in a court filing Moorman was fired “for legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons not causally related to the alleged whistleblowing activity.”
Under Kentucky law, non-U.S. citizens may obtain a standard driver’s license only if they provide legal presence documentation and proof of residency. KYTC confirms applicants’ status through federal verification systems.
“For immigrants who don’t have a pathway to obtain legal status, having a driver’s license can mean the difference between getting home from work safely to their children or wives or husband and not,” immigration attorney Adienne Trivedi said. “For a relatively small price to be able to have that chance of avoiding deportation, even just for that day, they’re willing to take it.”
Both Trivedi and Moorman said they believed the scheme exploited vulnerable people.
The scheme comes to light when immigration stands at the forefront of a national political debate that draws high emotion and polar opposite opinions. The Trump administration cracked down on immigration shifting policies to increase enforcement and deportations.
“It’s shocking this could go on at the Department of Transportation for so long,” said Garry Adams, Moorman’s attorney. “Why punish the employee who reported it? She should be the hero. There’s a failure to supervise these employees. There were obviously no checks and balances. It would appear to me that if you have systems to safeguard these licenses, these tests and also the fiscal or monetary function, an audit should have been done.”
Quantum Solutions, KYTC and Gov. Andy Beshear’s Office declined on-camera interviews.
In April, Beshear admitted in an interview with WDRB that there was an ongoing fraud investigation related to driver’s licensing in Kentucky but when asked if it had anything to do with immigration he said he wasn’t “aware.”
If accurate, that means the state’s top executive was unaware for at least seven months despite Moorman’s letter in October 2024, repeated inquiries from WDRB in early 2025 and her lawsuit filed in April 2025. That timeline raises questions about Beshear’s denial.
WDRB is now challenging KYTC’s refusal to release 2,300 withheld records in court, arguing the public has a right to know:
Whether KYTC followed the lawWhat steps were taken to investigateWhat will happen to people who received licenses in errorWho — if anyone — will be held accountable
As for Moorman, she said her main goal is to get her job back.
“I was angry, hurt and depressed,” she said. “I did the right thing. I told the truth. I should not have been fired.”
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Kentucky withholds records of fraud investigation after drivers obtain licenses without a test
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