"We are looking into it," Druker said. The investigation began before Sunday, Druker said, but he would not comment further.

 

FBI spokesman Ross Rice would not comment on whether that agency also was investigating the allegations.

 

Authorities are focusing on one worker at a secretary of state's office on the city's South Side, a source close to the investigation told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

Secretary of State investigating bribe allegations

 

 March 27, 2005 — The Secretary of State's office is investigating allegations that fake car titles for drug dealers were being sold in exchange for cash bribes, a spokesman for the office said Sunday.

 

The investigation involves at least two Chicago-area car dealership owners, who also are charged with laundering drug money for gangs, said Secretary of State spokesman Dave Druker.

Citing unnamed sources, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Sunday that dealership owners worked through a South Side secretary of state's office, where they paid bribes to at least one manager who allegedly helped the dealership owners avoid an Internal Revenue Service review and quickly issue license plates.

 

Having help from a worker in the secretary of state's office was vital because it kept the IRS from spotting suspect cash purchases that suggest drug money, sources told the Sun-Times. The bribes reportedly went on for years and as recently as January.

 

Druker declined to comment further on the Sun-Times report.

 

Last week, federal authorities shut down some dealerships as part of a wide-ranging investigation. So far, prosecutors' allegations include international drug trafficking, money laundering and illegal money wiring that sent more than $3 million to Iran.

 

Prosecutors say Amir Hosseini, 48, of Winnetka, helped drug runners and gang members, laundering more than $9 million over 10 years. Hosseini is being held without bond.

 

Hossein Esfahani, 44, of Lincolnwood, is charged with funneling millions of dollars to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.

 

Another auto dealer owner, Hossein Obaei, 52, of Northbrook, also was charged in the laundering scheme and with drug dealing. Obaei is being held on $1.5 million bond.

 

Prosecutors alleged that as part of the scheme, Hosseini and Obaei enabled drug dealers and gang members by helping conceal their large cash payments for vehicles.

 

Messages left by the AP for the Cook County state's attorney's office seeking the names of the attorneys for Esfahani and Obaei were not immediately returned on Sunday. The names of the three men also were not listed in local telephone directories.

 

Hosseini's attorney, Elliot Samuels, told the Sun-Times that the allegations against his client were dated and speculative. A message left at Samuels' Chicago office Sunday by the AP was not immediately returned and a public home phone listing for him could not be found.

 

Previously, workers in the secretary of state's office have been convicted of accepting bribes paid in return for drivers licenses. The corruption was so widespread that federal officials opened an investigation, called Operation Safe Road, that later expanded into a six-year examination of political misdeeds while George Ryan was secretary of state and governor.

 

Dozens of former state employees have been convicted in the investigation that also has led to more than 70 indictments including Ryan, who has pleaded innocent.