From the Sun-Times: 
 
Ex-state worker admits taking bribes to help dealers avoid taxes 
 
September 16, 2005 
 
BY NATASHA KORECKI Federal Courts Reporter 
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 A onetime Illinois secretary of state manager pleaded guilty Thursday to taking bribes and passing through fraudulent titles for auto dealers to help them skirt taxes. 
 
 Brenda Strong, 35, of 427 E. 46th Pl., admitted she helped indicted car dealership owner Hossein Obaei and an unnamed person obtain fraudulent paperwork. Strong admitted she met with Obaei at his auto dealership once or twice a month and would stamp documents for him that gave him the necessary approvals making it look as though he paid taxes on vehicles. She said she was paid $100 to $200 each time and did the favor from about 2001 to 2005. 
 
 She also admitted using her position to run license plates through a computer database for an informant. 
 
 Strong is a former floor supervisor at the Secretary of State's facility at 99th and Martin Luther King Drive. She was hired in 1997 and promoted to a managerial position in December. 
 
 Obaei is involved in a separate indictment with business partner Amir Hosseini on charges of laundering more than $9 million by taking drug money from gang members for luxury cars and helping the sellers conceal their large cash transactions. 
 
 An informant recorded Strong on video and audio tapes providing help for money. 
 
 She is scheduled to be sentenced in December.