Botchev was the ‘ring leader’ according to the Sheriff’s Office. He was arrested Thursday. Credit William Mansell

Botchev was the ‘ring leader’ according to the Sheriff’s Office. He was arrested Thursday. Credit William MansellIn 2008 the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation into a $3.1 million racketeering scheme involving luxury car and credit card fraud.

Five suspects were arrested Thursday in what the Sheriff’s Office is calling an organized crime ring. Five more suspects are still at-large.

Arrested Suspects:

According to investigators, the suspects engaged in obtaining lines of credit in the form of credit card accounts and vehicle loans by providing false and/or inflated information to the lending institutions; and subsequently defaulting on those lines of credit.

The credit card activities centered on the creation of multiple fraudulent credit card accounts, investigators said. The suspects would then use the credit cards to make high-dollar purchases through collusive or shell corporations before the accounts went into default.

While the credit card applicants listed on the merchant account applications were listed in the names of several of the above listed suspects, the majority of the depository accounts were linked and funneled to suspect Botchev.

According to the Sheriff’s Office report, detectives say Botchev arranged for each of the suspects to be affiliated with a Florida or Illinois registered corporation for the purpose of utilizing said corporation as employment verification on the applications submitted to the financial institutions; and to establish a merchant account in order to conduct the credit card transactions.

On the credit card side, the suspects are responsible for an estimated $1 million loss to the financial institutions.

According to detectives, the funds from the fraudulent credit card transactions were then used to finance the vehicle fraud activities.

Detectives say after the suspects obtained a vehicle loan, the suspects arranged for the high-end vehicles purchased with said loan to be shipped overseas where the vehicles were sold.

According to the report, the suspects accomplished this by titling and registering the vehicles in the State of Illinois; using the shell corporations to uttered satisfaction of leans, thus enabling the suspects to obtain the clear vehicle titles needed to ship the cars overseas. The luxury vehicles include BMWs, Lexus’, Audis, Infinitis, Mercedes Benz’ and Acuras.

Most have been recovered in the U.S. and Lithuania. At this time detectives say the scheme included 37 vehicles and 46 transactions.

Botchev, the Sheriff’s Office said, appears to be the central figure in the organized scheme to obtain the vehicles through fraudulent means and then ship them overseas.

Investigators say he was also able to obtain duplicate titles on vehicles he had previously owned and registered in the State of Florida and had other suspects in the organization obtain a second loan on vehicles already shipped out of the country.

Suspects not arrested on thus far will be sought in the days and weeks to come.

“The successful investigation and outcome of this case could not have been possible without the team work and partnerships we have established with the U.S. Secret Service, the Florida Attorney General, Office of the Statewide prosecutor and Chicago area law enforcement officials,” said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri in a news release.

John Joyce, Special Agent in Charge, Tampa Field Office, and U.S. Secret Service praised the long-standing partnership with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office to address all forms of financial criminal activity.

“Through use of a well-developed financial crimes task force, our agencies have demonstrated the value of force multiplication affording investigative benefit to both agencies,” Joyce said in a news release. “By developing and sharing information and pooling our investigative resources, our agencies have put a significant dent into the illegal workings of Mr. Botchev and other members of his organized criminal group.”

Posted by Holly Merz