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Thursday, 01/26/06

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 Murfreesboro 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." •