The FBI's My Harrison, right, discusses a conspiracy
to obtain driver's licenses for people who were not
eligible. U.S. Attorney Jim Vines, left, said most of
those getting fake licenses were in the country illegally. (AP)
Posted on 01/26/2006 8:14:38 PM PST by NewRomeTacitus
Suspects accused of bribery, conspiracy, helping immigrants get fake licenses
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."
The FBI's My Harrison, right, discusses a conspiracy
to obtain driver's licenses for people who were not
eligible. U.S. Attorney Jim Vines, left, said most of
those getting fake licenses were in the country illegally. (AP)
Please ping das list, bitte.
Wardaddy, there you go.
ping
yep...this is a real joke.
last i saw the murfreesboro driver's license bureau, it was a bunch of big haired older women who all looked alike
hope they put these clowns away
Tennessee is illegales safe haven.....I'm ashamed
If any of the fraud obtained licenses have an accident that results in a death, all should be charged with murder!
At least we are strarting to crack down hard on this sort of activity. It is probably going on all over the place.
Ping
Drive by any Driver's Testing Center here and marvel at the long line of extremely tanned short people unable to speak English. When the call went out for a national protest at the places illegal aliens gather to cadge for work we Tennesseans were at a loss, as they are so thoroughly distributed without obvious centralization.
But if ICE wants to nab a whole bunch at once all they have to do is descend on any Testing Center on a weekday.
Five Men with Mideast Ties Indicted in License Scam (Tennessee License Scandal)
TENN DRIVER LICENSE SCANDAL: FLAMING DEATH NO ACCIDENT, FBI SAYS
Car fire set off suspicions as crew fought it (Smith Tennesee License Scandal)
License suspect had WTC repair pass, but Port Authority did its own work [Tennessee License Scandal]
The pass gave him access to the buildings' sprinkler systems.
I bet he "fixed" them real good...
Treason is not too strong a word.
Wowzers; I did not know about this connection to the 9-11-2001 hit. So the terrorists apparently killed the license examiner who enabled them...no wonder the FBI is hot on this.
I've spoken to SAC My Harrison often in the past several months where my job put me close to the FBI's office here. She's whipsmart and doesn't take any crap. I hope she busts this nest of weasels so hard that their mommas will feel the slap.
Alles recht?
It's illuminating that the burned her alive. These sick bassturds LIKE burning people. They must have had orgasms watching people jump from the 90th floor to avoid the flames.
When this is over may the koran only be read in Hell.
Alles gut. Danke schein.
And for the rest, it should be alright.
Thank YOU for bringing this back to light. It has been obvious that our government has been playing that tragic event for it's own PR, playing on our heartstrings, without actually dragging the people responsible to justice.
Seriously now, we have the greatest trained SpecOps on the planet utilizing the highest technology available yet we're supposed to buy that they can't find and drag Bin Laden back in the two years we've been looking for him? Something's radically wrong here!
Travis, what's your take on this seemingly endless "Find Waldo"?
Well writ. I see your point but the guy's slippery moves out of the hands of justice merely emboldens our enemies (note the recent Palestinian elections). He needs to be seen doing the long dance on the short rope on widely available video.
I wouldn't watch it myself but I hear those bloodthirsty savages in Islamic countries can't get enough of it. Let them see their "homeboy" perform with nary a consolation prize.
YMMV
I forgot to say that I view the "Palestinian" state with total contempt. An artificial entity of Jordanian refugees that are too radical to nbe readmitted, they play the UN and the world press for suckers. Talk about your welfare state; these asswipes actually shot up an office because they couldn't understand how a street redesign to enable further services required encroachment on space that they weren't paying for in the first place.
Now that the "Palestinians" have overwhelmingly supported terrorists over their semi-civilized party I think my argument for scorched earth sterilizaion for them is justified, if we can extract the children beforehand.
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