Lesbia Lily Gonzalez Moreno, Bribery, Georgia 2023

Lesbia Lily Gonzalez Moreno, a 47-year-old woman from Atlanta, Georgia, has been sentenced to one year and one month in prison for bribing former supervisor Gerald D. Harris in the DeKalb County Tax Commissioner’s Office. Harris, who pleaded guilty to federal program bribery and blackmail, was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of supervised release on July 14, 2020.

Between May 2019 and November 12, 2019, Moreno paid Harris more than $20,000 in bribe payments to register vehicles without the necessary documentation. This corruption betrayed the trust of citizens in government and undermined public safety, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine.

When citizens like Moreno pay bribes to public officials, they are part of a crime that tarnishes every government official and betrays the trust of citizens, said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. The FBI is hopeful that the punishment will help restore the public’s trust.

Lesbia Lily Gonzalez Moreno was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten on November 12, 2023, in the Northern District of Georgia. The charges against Moreno include bribery, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

The DeKalb County Tax Commissioner’s Office is an agency of DeKalb County, Georgia, responsible for billing and collecting property taxes, processing Homestead Exemptions, and collecting delinquent taxes. In addition, the Motor Vehicle Division of the DeKalb County Tax Commissioner’s Office handled all aspects of motor vehicle registrations, including managing the collection of motor vehicle taxes, issuing vehicle tags and titles, and processing vehicle registration renewals for citizens and businesses located in DeKalb County, Georgia.

Gerald D. Harris, the former Supervisor of Tax Tag Clerks for the DeKalb County Tax Commissioner’s Office, oversaw the Tax Commissioner North Office’s clerks who processed motor vehicle registrations and renewals for customers. Harris generally interacted with customers only if a dispute existed between clerks and customers.

Moreno paid Harris bribe payments to register unlawfully vehicles for owners who did not present a valid Georgia driver’s license or identification card. In many cases, Moreno paid bribes to register vehicles for people who presented only foreign identification documents.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga/pr/georgia-woman-sentenced-bribing-former-supervisor-dekalb-county-tax-commissioner-s