Emmanuel Padilla Reyes, 35, was sentenced to five years in federal prison and ordered to pay $22 million for his role in a massive fraud involving fake Texas temporary license plates.
According to authorities, the scheme helped criminals to dodge law enforcement by using counterfeit paper tags sold by Reyes. The plan involves fake car dealerships printing and selling at least 550,000 fake paper plates around the nation.
Cameras were not permitted in the courtroom, although Reyes apologized for his acts and requested mercy from the judge. His apology came soon after Tawny Solbrig, his mother and supporter, approached him.
“I didn’t know I wanted to look him in the face until I got there,” Solbrig said. “And then I wanted him to look in the face because I know he never has heard our son’s name. He has never heard Terrin Solbrig. He probably didn’t know anything about it until today.”
Solbrig and her husband, Stewart, have been ardent opponents of crimes involving phony temporary license plates. In 2020, a driver with phony tags killed Terrin, their 18-year-old son, in a car accident.
Stewart Solbrig said, “He had just graduated high school and was going out with some friends to ride dirt bikes and four-wheelers. He was hit head-on by a truck with illegal paper tags. It didn’t have insurance, didn’t have inspection, was registered to somebody else. No title. Everything you could do wrong was wrong with this vehicle.”
The fake tags involved in the incident were ultimately traced to Reyes’ nationwide paper plate business.
“He didn’t realize or didn’t care about the impact it could cause,” Solbrig said. “These tags were going on cars involved in drive-by shootings, fleeing police, and sex trafficking.”
Two additional participants in the scheme have also been charged.
In 2021, KPRC 2 Investigates exposed how pervasive the false paper tag problem had gotten, with counterfeit tags found on getaway automobiles as far away as New York.
The study contributed to the passage of a new Texas law, which goes into effect on July 1 and eliminates paper temporary license plates. Dealerships must now provide temporary metal plates.
