And George Bush thought he had a bug problem.

Celebrity gumshoe Anthony Pellicano pleaded not guilty Monday to charges he led a conspiracy to record the phone conversations of such stars as Sylvester Stallone, Garry Shandling and Keith Carradine, as well as various business executives, looking for any sort of dirt that would give his clients a "tactical advantage" in court battles.

The 110-count federal indictment unsealed Tuesday also charged the P.I. with racketeering and wire fraud charges for allegedly gaining unauthorized access to law enforcement databases to dig up criminal histories and driving records of various individuals.

According to court documents, Pellicano, 61, with the help of a half-dozen accomplices, is alleged to have "paid bribes to corrupt public officials" within the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Police Department to get the information he wanted.

"We'll do the investigation and see what the facts show," acting U.S. Attorney George Cardona said in a statement.

"These charges allege a disturbing pattern of criminal conduct in which money flowed freely to sworn law enforcement officers to violate their oath and uphold the law to provide the means for Pellicano and his associates to violate the rights of others."

Pellicano, who once toiled for the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson, was taken into federal custody on the charges just one day before he was scheduled to be released from prison. He had been serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for illegally possessing explosives.

Prosecutors claim Pellicano targeted at least 15 people for eavesdropping. Aside from Stallone, Shandling and Carradine, the private eye monitored phone calls of Herbalife cofounder Mark Hughes, former Los Angeles Times reporter Anita Busch and screenwriter James Orr. The victims purportedly had their conversations recoded by listening devices installed on outside switch boxes or via phone company installations, courtesy of some insider help.

"This matter is a significant investigation into activities that impacted the basic right to privacy of individuals in Los Angeles," said J. Stephen Tidwell, the assistant director in charge of the FBI in Los Angeles. "Sadly, the investigation led to the arrest of members of the law enforcement community and the private sector who apparently were willing to violate then confidence entrusted to them and conspired to operate above the law with perceived impunity."

Among the rogue cops swept up in the probe were ex-LAPD Sergeant Mark Arneson and Beverly Hills Police Department Officer Craig Stevens, both of whom allegedly gave the sleuth illegal access to dozens of people's records from the Department of Motor Vehicles and the National Crime Information Center.

Pellicano allegedly paid Arneson $192,000 to hand over records on Carradine and his girlfriend, actress Hayley DuMond, Saturday Night Live alum Kevin Nealon and famed security expert to the stars Gavin de Becker, among others.

Stevens has already pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and four counts of unauthorized access of protected computers to commit fraud and is due to be sentenced later this year.

According to prosecutors, Rayford Earl Turner, a former employee of SBC and Pacific Bell, received more than $36,000 for allowing Pellicano access to proprietary telephone company information enabling him to install the bugs.

Pellicano, Arneson and Turner are accused of running a criminal "enterprise" in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (otherwise known as RICO) that benefited his clients. Pellicano and Turner were also charged in a wiretapping conspiracy.

Kevin Kachikian, 41, of Fountain Valley, California, is charged with writing the wiretapping software called Telesleuth that Pellicano used in the scheme to listen into phone conversations dating all the way back to at least 1997.

Three of Pellicano's clients were also taken into custody and, along with Kachikian, are expected to be arraigned later Tuesday.

Robert Pfeifer, the 50-year-old former president of Hollywood Records, and brothers Daniel and Abner Nicherie of Las Vegas, were charged with aiding and abetting the private eye on several occasions in the phone-bugging scandal.

Pfeifer purportedly tapped Pellicano's services to spy on a former girlfriend and is also accused of witness tampering for allegedly intimidating her from talking to police. His lawyer, Leonard Sharenow, has denied the allegations. Abner Nicherie reportedly had a former business associate wiretapped during a business spat while Daniel was arrested for committing fraud against another one of the investigator's wiretapping targets.

The feds are expected to use testimony from former Pellicano client Sandra Carradine, the 58-year-old ex-wife of actor Keith, in building a case against the investigator. Carradine has already pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury after she allegedly lied to a grand jury about using Pellicano to eavesdrop on her ex-husband's phone calls while they were going through a messy divorce.

Pellicano's attorney, Steven Gruel, was unavailable for comment and his client is being held without bail, so far not uttering a peep to FBI investigators looking into his shady business practices.

If convicted on the wiretapping and racketeering charges, Pellicano faces hundreds of years in jail.

The case is expected to ensnare many other Hollywood power players in the coming months, especially if Pellicano decides not to fall on his sword.

Many of the cases involved A-list lawyer Bert Fields, who employed Pellicano as an investigor but was not named in the indictment. A spokesperson for Fields' law firm sought to distance the litigator from any illicit behavior, suggesting Pellicano was a rogue operative. "If Mr. Pellicano engaged in any illegal activity," the rep said, "he did so without their or the firm's knowledge or authorization."