THREE MORE PLEAD GUILTY IN OPERATION CROOKED HIGHWAY

Nashville, TN - July 17, 2006 - Three more defendants charged as part of Operation Crooked Highway entered guilty pleas today, announced Jim Vines, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.

Bruce Conklin, a former driver license examiner for the Tennessee Department of Safety (TDOS) at the Murfreesboro driver license station, pled guilty to two charges related to his acceptance of more than $30,000 in bribes in connection with his job. Conklin pled guilty to one conspiracy count that included allegations of providing driver licenses illegally in exchange for bribes and one substantive count of accepting bribes.

Bryan Guess, formerly the owner and operator of the Winchester Driving School, pled guilty to three public corruption charges related to bribes he paid to Conklin and other employees of TDOS in exchange for benefits they provided to Guess's customers. Guess admitted that the value of the driver licenses and certificates for driving that his customers received in exchange for the bribes exceeded $400,000. Guess pled guilty to one conspiracy count and two substantive counts of paying bribes to public officials. Guess also agreed to forfeit more than $162,000 that constituted proceeds of the conspiracy.

Shelia Robertson, a former employee of Guess, also pled guilty to one conspiracy count and one substantive count of paying bribes to a public official. She admitted that she and Guess paid a TDOS employee approximately $20 per student for about 1,000 of her students. She admitted that in exchange for the bribes that she and Guess paid, the TDOS employee overlooked weak proof-of-residency documents provided by Robertson's students, helped Robertson's students pass the written and vision tests, and provided Robertson and Guess with a copy of the test administered by TDOS to Spanish-speaking individuals so that Robertson and Guess could coach their students ahead of time.

Shun Gao, who was charged in the same indictment as Conklin, Guess, and Robertson, previously pled guilty on May 22, 2006 to one conspiracy count and one substantive count of paying bribes to a public official. As part of his plea, Gao admitted that the value of the driver licenses received by his customers in exchange for bribes that Gao paid to Bruce Conklin exceeded $120,000.

The sentencing hearings for Conklin, Guess, and Robertson have been set for October 16, 2006 at 1:00 p.m. Gao's sentencing hearing is set for August 11, 2006 at 1:00 p.m. The substantive bribery counts each carry a maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment, and the conspiracy counts each carry a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.

Operation Crooked Highway is a joint investigation by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Criminal Investigation Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The United States is being represented in these cases by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bret Hester and Hilliard Hester.