Thread: Federal Prosecutors charge six with driver's license fraud

http://www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=4412598&nav=1ugO

Operation Crooked Highway: Federal Prosecutors charge six with driver's license fraud

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Federal prosecutors charged six people, including two state driver's license examiners, Wednesday with a conspiracy to issue possibly thousands of fraudulent driving licenses and certificates to illegal immigrants.

A federal indictment lists charges ranging from paying bribes, taking bribes and transporting illegal workers into the state to get the fraudulent driving documents. Authorities said they won't know how many illegal documents were issued until all evidence is studied and declined to speculate on the total.

They did say that one state worker accepted $20 per student in bribes for about 1,000 licenses or certificates. "We come to you with another sad chapter in the book of public corruption in Tennessee," FBI agent in charge My Harrison said at an afternoon news conference. Two of those charged worked at the driver's license examining station in Murfreesboro, a Nashville suburb.

Tennessee began licensing illegal immigrants in early 2001 but in response to terrorism concerns switched in 2004 to issuing driving certificates that are labeled not to be used for identification. The indictment unsealed Wednesday says that Safety Department employee Bruce Conklin and former employee Teresa Jones took bribes from a driving school. Conklin is accused of taking $9,200 in cash payments from July through January while Jones allegedly got $20,000 from May 2004 through March. Bryan Guess, who owns the Winchester Driving School, was charged along with former school worker Sheila Robertson with paying bribes between May 2004 and March 2005.

Jones went to work for the driving school after she left state government. Prosecutors said Winchester Driving School had a contract with the state to issue "third-party certificates" after providing six hours of driving instruction and administering written and road driving tests to students.

According to the indictment, the school was accepting money to issue the third-party certificate without any training or tests. Shun Gao was charged with paying cash to the school in exchange for the certificates.

Syed Abbas Parvez, an illegal immigrant living in Georgia, was charged with transporting another illegal immigrant from Pakistan to Tennessee to get a fraudulent license through the driving school.

The joint federal-state investigation was dubbed Operation Crooked Highway. About 100 illegal immigrants are being deported as a result of the investigation, federal immigration agent Rick Crocker said.

U.S. Attorney Jim Vines said three people, including a former state worker at a driver's license station in the Nashville suburb of Gallatin, had already pleaded guilty in the case. Vines credited the Safety Department with starting the investigation. "They did a fantastic job of cleaning their own house," he said. Interim Safety Commissioner Gerald Nicely said the department is studying an overhaul of licensing procedures, including how to prevent fraud. "Obviously what we're doing here today will be a big deterrent," he said.

The Safety Department has been at the center of a series of scandals, including Highway Patrol officers with criminal backgrounds, ticket-fixing and an atmosphere of political favoritism. Nicely has been assigned there temporarily to help develop a reform plan.

Wednesday's indictment follows arrests last July in East Tennessee of an illegal immigrant from Argentina and her boyfriend on charges they shuttled other illegal immigrants from New Jersey to Tennessee to get fraudulent licenses and certificates.

Citing a number of recent public corruption investigations in Tennessee, Harrison said agents were getting better with practice. "If you can hear me and are involved in public corruption, the eyes of law enforcement are upon you," she said.

http://www.newschannel5.com/content/news/16916.asp

Six Charged In "Operation Crooked Highway" Scandal
Posted: 1/25/2006 3:30:00 PM
Updated: 1/25/2006 10:19:56 PM

Four people have been indicted for participating in a conspiracy to bribe Tennessee Department of Safety driver license examiners, and two others have been charged with accepting the bribes in exchange for issuing driver licenses and certificates.


Bryan Guess, Shelia Robertson, Shun Gao, who is also known as “Gordon,� and Syed Abbas Parvez, also known as “Andy,� are charged with conspiracy to commit bribery.


Bryan Guess, the owner and operator of Winchester Driving School, and his former employee Shelia Robertson, were charged with paying Teresa Jones more than $5,000 in bribes during the period Jones worked for TDOS. Jones, who worked at the Murfreesboro driver license station, is accused of accepting more than $5,000 in exchange for helping people obtain Tennessee driver licenses and Certificates For Driving, even when those people had not satisfied all the requirements for obtaining the license or certificate.

The indictment alleges that Jones accepted about $20 in cash for approximately 1,000 Winchester Driving School students who obtained licenses or certificates from May 2004 through March 2005.

The indictment also charges Bruce Conklin, a current TDOS employee at the Murfreesboro driver license station, with the same charges that Jones is facing.

Teresa Jones now works for Bryan Guess at the Winchester Driving School. Guess is also charged, along with Shun Gao, with paying Conklin more than $5,000 in bribes. The indictment alleges that Conklin accepted about $9,200 in cash payments from July 2005 through January 2006 from an unnamed employee of Guess.

Syed Abbas Parves, an alleged illegal alien who lives in Georgia, is charged in the indictment with transporting another illegal alien and helping him remain in the United States by obtaining an illegal Tennessee license. The unnamed illegal alien is a Pakistani citizen, and Parves is accused of paying more than $1,000 in exchange for a third party certificate from Winchester Driving School, fake proof of residency documents, and a Tennessee driver license for the man. Bruce Conklin is charged with accepting the money and issuing a driver license to the illegal.

The Winchester Driving School had a contract with the State of Tennessee to participate in a program that allows private parties to administer the written portion of the Tennessee driver license examination and the road test. Each driving school participating in the Cooperative Driver Testing Program must sign an agreement that prior to giving the written and road test to a student, the school will provide that student with 30 hours of classroom instruction and six hours of on-the-road driving instruction to the student.

Once the student completes the program and passes the written and road test, the school issues the student a third-party certificate to present to a Tennessee Department of Safety driver license station. The driver license station is supposed to verify the student's identity and residency documents, and make the student take a vision test, and then issue a driver license or Certificate For Driving to the student.

One part of the conspiracy alleged in the indictment said the Winchester Driving School would, for a fee, provide its students with third-party certificates without requiring the students to complete the required thirty-six hours of instruction.

Shun Gao is alleged to have paid about $32,510 in cash in exchange for third-party certificates from Winchester Driving School, and Guess is alleged to have accepted about $37,300 in cash for third party certificates provided by Winchester Driving School from August 2005 - December 2005. During that same period, Conklin is alleged to have issued licenses to about 50 clients of Shun Gao who presented Conklin with third-party certificates from Winchester Driving School.

Three other individuals have already been prosecuted in connection with the investigation. Jose Alberto Alicea-Huertas pleaded guilty in May 2005 to making false statements to a special agent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Blanca Sanchez Tovar, formerly a TDOS employee at the driver license station in Gallatin, also pleaded guilty in May 2005 to accepting bribes in return for issuing Certificates For Driving to approximately 50 people who had not satisfied the requirements to obtain the certificate legitimately. Tovar admitted to accepting about $400 per fraudulently-produced certificate from her co-defendant, Javier Guzman.

Guzman pleaded guilty in September 2005 in connection with the bribes he paid to Tovar in exchange for the certificates.

Operation Crooked Highway was a joint investigation by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Criminal Investigation Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division. U.S. District Attorney Jim Vines and acting Tennessee Department of Safety Commissioner Gerald Nicely announced the indictment at a news conference Wednesday.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... /601260433

Six indicted in driver's license fraud

Suspects accused of bribery, conspiracy, helping immigrants get fake licenses

By CLAY CAREY
Staff Writer


A widespread bribery scheme funneled hundreds of illegal aliens into a Winchester, Tenn.-based driving school, netting them fraudulent licenses. And six people, including one current and one former state employee, got more than $146,000, federal prosecutors said yesterday.

The U.S. attorney's office yesterday unsealed a six-count indictment of the six people who are accused of helping hundreds of people since May 2004 obtain driver's licenses they didn't earn. They have been charged with bribing state employees, accepting bribes and conspiracy.




About 100 people who got the fake licenses have been deported or are in the deportation process as a result of the investigation, federal authorities said.

"Just as in previous investigations, you had those who thought that what they did in secret would never come to light," said My Harrison, FBI special agent in charge for the Middle and Western Districts of Tennessee. The FBI was one of several agencies involved in the probe.

U.S. Attorney Jim Vines said the people who fraudulently received licenses weren't eligible for "a variety of reasons."

Officials also said most of those getting the licenses were in the country illegally.

The investigation, dubbed Operation Crooked Highway, has been under way by federal and state agencies for 18 months, Vines said yesterday.

Federal officials say two immigrants directed people, many immigrants themselves, to Winchester Driving School in Franklin County and paid for fraudulent third-party certification. In turn, the driving school allegedly paid two Department of Motor Vehicle clerks to provide licenses to those certificate holders.

Those named in the indictment are:

• Bryan Guess, 61, the owner and operator of Winchester Driving School, accused of accepting more than $46,000 to issue fraudulent third-party certificates on behalf of the driving school.

• Shelia Robertson, a former employee of the driving school, accused of paying bribes to state DMV worker Teresa Jones to help students get licenses and driving certificates.

• Teresa Jones, 48, a former DMV worker in the Mufreesboro office, accused of accepting $20 per person for about 1,000 Winchester Driving School students who obtained driver's licenses or driving certificates between March 2004 and May 2005. She worked for the state for a little more than a year and then was hired at Winchester Driving School in May 2005, federal officials said.

• Shun Gao, 24, an employee at a Murfreesboro Chinese restaurant, accused of funneling people to Winchester and paying the school, through an unidentified employee, $32,510 in exchange third-party certificates.

• Syed Abbas Parvez, 33, an alleged illegal immigrant accused of paying the driving school $1,100 in exchange for a third-party certificate, fake proof-of-residency documents and a regular driver's license for a Pakistani citizen whom Parvez had allegedly transported to Tennessee from Georgia.

• Bruce Conklin, 38, a DMV employee, accused of accepting $9,200 in cash from an employee at Winchester during the investigation and issuing about 50 driver's licenses to Shun Gao's clients between August and December 2005. State Department of Safety officials said Conklin is on paid administrative leave while the case is pending.

Several driving schools in the state can issue third-party certificates. They administer the state's written and road driving tests and, if students pass, they get a certificate. From there, the DMV will issue a license or driving certificate if they pass a vision test, residency check and other routine measures.

All six face conspiracy charges that carry up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Charges of accepting bribes or bribing state employees carry maximum sentences of 10 years and fines up to $250,000.

News of the indictments prompted state Sen. Bill Ketron of Murfreesboro to again call for tighter regulations on the license requirements. Last year, Ketron pushed a bill that requires applicants to provide a valid Social Security number or documentation from the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, but it didn't get out of the transportation committee.

"At the risk of sounding really bad, it's a good start," said Theresa Harmon, co-founder of Tennesseans for Responsible Immigration Polices, a group that has called for stricter standards.

The indictments "may help deter some state workers who may take money under the table," Harmon said. "But the ones who come here to get those driver's certificates, they're crossing the desert to get here. There just isn't that much of a deterrent for those people."

Revoking immigrants' abilities to get driving certificates won't make roads any safer, according to Stephen Fotopulos, policy coordinator for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Council. Most immigrants and refugees who attain those documents do so through legal means, he said.

The council has pushed for measures making it easier for immigrants to get driver's licenses in Tennessee and has spoken out against racial profiling and other practices that it believes violate the civil rights of immigrants.

"The immigration system is broken, and there are many symptoms of it being broken in Tennessee," he said. "But the more we, as a society, try to alienate immigrants and refugees, the more they are open to exploitation." •