CDL Scandal Yields 13th Arrest

A truck driver arrested for buying political fund-raising tickets in exchange for commercial driver licenses is the latest casualty in the Illinois licensing scandal.

Nikola Blagojevich is the 13th person charged in the federal investigation of license selling by state Department of Transportation employees in the Chicago area. The scandal threatens to send thousands of truckers back for retests.

Authorities said Blagojevich started paying off employees in exchange for passing grades on CDL tests at a licensing facility in McCook, Ill., in 1995. The scheme later expanded to a second center in Melrose Park, Ill.

Marion Seibel, a former manager at the McCook center who has been indicted for his role in the corruption, told investigators that Blagojevich had bought at least 10 political fund-raising tickets at $100 each in return for licenses for his applicants.