ROBERT A. GREEN PLEADS GUILTY IN U.S. FEDERAL COURT IN PHOENIX

Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Phoenix, Arizona, on June 6, 2006, before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Virginia A. Mathis, ROBERT A. GREEN, a 45-year-old resident of Scottsdale, Arizona, pled guilty to one count of mail fraud. Sentencing is set for September 26, 2006, in Phoenix.

On August 19, 2005, GREEN was indicted on six counts of mail fraud and one count of money-laundering in Billings.

On March 23, 2006, the case was transferred to the District of Arizona.

The government stated in the indictment it would have proved at trial the following:

GREEN and the owner of a used car dealership in Billings entered into a business relationship in 2000 in which the owner of the dealership acted as the wholesale supplier of used vehicles and GREEN was the retail dealer.

From approximately January until March of 2001, GREEN utilized a scheme to defraud the owner of the dealership of money. GREEN told the owner of the dealership that he had sold used cars supplied by the dealership and that he was sending payment for the cars, knowing he was issuing bad checks to get the owner of the dealership to send him the vehicle titles. GREEN received vehicle titles from the owner of the dealership and took all the retail sales profits from 10 vehicles, valued at approximately $123,000.

GREEN faces possible penalties of 5 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, restitution, and three years supervised release.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Leif M. Johnson of Billings and Frank Galati of Phoenix, prosecuted the case for the United States.

The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.