Jackson Man Charged in Large Scale Vehicle Odometer Roll Back Scheme

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Department of Justice
Jackson, Miss. – Mark Longgrear, 53, of Jackson, Mississippi was arrested yesterday and charged in a federal criminal complaint with rolling back the odometers of multiple high mileage vehicles and selling such fraudulently altered vehicles with doctored titles, announced U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst and Supervisory Special Agent David W. Sparks with the U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Office of Odometer Fraud Investigation.

Longgrear appeared in court today for an initial appearance on the criminal complaint before U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda R. Anderson.

According to the criminal complaint and affidavit, for at least the last four years, Mark Longgrear, operating individually and through his company Southern Auto Buyers LLC, bought more than 50 late model, high mileage vehicles from auctions, dealerships, and/or individuals, thereafter illegally altered the odometers of such vehicles to show lower mileage, forged and fraudulently created paperwork to secure new titles showing false lower mileage for these vehicles, and then sold said vehicles directly to individuals and automobile dealerships at much higher prices. He used internet websites to sell some of these vehicles directly to consumers, and also used employment and wholesale relationships with large Mississippi automobile dealerships in Jackson and Vicksburg to sell these fraudulently altered odometer vehicles to these dealerships, who in turn unknowingly sold them to consumers with this false information.

“Vehicle odometer fraud affects us all, whether directly as consumers purchasing vehicles and being defrauded out of thousands of dollars or as the general public who can be endangered by these potentially unsafe vehicles. I commend the agents and prosecutor for rooting out this far-reaching scheme. In order to protect consumers and safeguard the general public, our office will relentlessly pursue and vigorously prosecute those whom break federal law by rolling back vehicle odometers,” said U.S. Attorney Hurst.

Each violation of Sections 32703(2) and 32705(a)(2) of Title 49 carries a penalty of three years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine. The conspiracy charge, 18 U.S.C. § 371, is punishable by 5 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine.

The case was investigated by United States Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Office of Odometer Fraud Investigation, with assistance from the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Marshals Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Keesha Middleton.

The public is reminded that a criminal complaint is a formal charge against a defendant. It is merely an accusation and each defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

NHTSA has established a special hotline to handle odometer fraud complaints. Individuals who have information relating to odometer tampering should call (800) 424-9393 or (720) 963-3127.

Man pleads guilty to running license plate fraud ring

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – A New York man has admitted to operating a crime ring that rented out more than a thousand fake Pennsylvania license plates.

Rafael Levi, 51, of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty Friday in Dauphin County Court to 36 third-degree felonies, Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office said. Levi was charged in April 2017 with more than 500 counts.

Prosecutors said the ring charged $400 a month for fake plates that people used in order to avoid paying more than $1 million in parking fines and highway tolls in New York, Pennsylvania, and neighboring states.

The ring dubbed “Operation Car Wash” also provided fake insurance cards, rolled back odometer readings on cars it bought and sold, and issued phony letters to PennDOT to get clean vehicle titles.

Levi also pleaded guilty on behalf of nine businesses. Each will be ordered to pay a fine of $10,000 and a civil penalty of $15,000.

Eight members of the ring also pleaded guilty Friday to crimes including theft and insurance fraud.

Shapiro said his office is seeking restitution of more than $1.5 million from the defendants.

As part of his plea, Levi agreed to forfeit numerous luxury vehicles including a 2015 Rolls Royce Wraith, a 2015 Ferrari, and a 2007 Ferrari F430.

Original Article: http://abc27.com/2018/03/12/man-pleads-guilty-to-running-license-plate-fraud-ring/

Norfolk man pleads guilty to rolling back odometers on at least 50 used cars, reselling for profit

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A Norfolk man conspired to roll back the odometers of more than 50 vehicles before selling them to used-car dealerships and others, according to court documents.

Lawson W. Basnight, 47, pleaded guilty Thursday to the fraud – which resulted in $250,000 to $550,000 in losses.

“He’s accepted responsibility and knows what he did was wrong,” Moody “Sonny” Stallings Jr., Basnight’s attorney, said after the plea hearing. He said his client expects to serve some time in jail and was ready to start his sentence Thursday, “but the judge talked him out of it.”

A sentencing hearing is set for May 16 in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. Basnight faces a maximum of five years in prison.

Prosecutors Jacqueline Blaesi-Freed and Elizabeth Yusi declined to comment.

According to court documents, the scheme stretched from September 2010 through October 2016. Basnight worked with at least one other person to defraud vehicle purchasers into believing they were buying cars and trucks with significantly lower mileages than they actually had – prompting them to pay significantly more than they were actually worth.

To conceal the scheme, Basnight would sometimes pose as a used-car dealer while buying the vehicles and give an alias, documents said. He would direct the sellers not to write their vehicle’s mileage on the title. He would then roll back the odometer and fill out the document with the false reading. After that, he or an acquaintance would apply for and secure a new title.

Court documents reference the purchase in 2013 of a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee with at least 125,000 miles. An acquaintance of Basnight’s disconnected the odometer and rolled it back to indicate the vehicle had been driven only 12,954 miles.

The Jeep was purchased for $19,000 and sold to a “major used car retailer” for about $30,000, documents said. Stallings said some of the vehicles were sold at CarMax.

The documents also reference a purchase in 2016 of a 2009 Ford F-150. It was bought one day for for $9,700 and sold the next for $21,900. In the interim, the mileage dropped from at least 165,000 miles to 54,982.

Scott Daugherty, 757-446-2343, scott.daugherty@pilotonline.com

Original Article: https://pilotonline.com/news/local/crime/article_e3afa6dd-bbf8-5970-8e49-e2660340ebc8.html 

Mother-daughter employees of Central Texas tax office arrested

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CAMERON, Texas (KWTX) A mother and daughter who worked in the Milam County Tax Office were free on bond Tuesday after they were arrested on warrants stemming from an investigation of forged vehicle registrations.

Lydia Cervantes, 55, and her daughter Laura Renee Cervantes, 26, were arrested at the tax office Monday by agents from the Texas Department of Public Safety, Milam County Sheriff David E. Green said.

Green said both were booked into the county jail and were released after posting bond.

Both were charged with forgery of vehicle registration and with filing false identities, jail records showed.

“I don’t know much about the details of the case because the arrest was made by state police from the DPS computer crimes division,” Green said.

In March 2016 Milam County Assistant Community Supervision Officer, Ronald G. Floyd, 50 of Cameron, pleaded guilty to theft by a public servant over $2,500, but less than $30,000, a third-degree felony.

He was sentenced to three years deferred adjudication probation, ordered to pay a $2,500 fine, court costs and at least $8,180 in restitution, prosecutors said.

Floyd was accused of encouraging probationers to bring their probation fees to his office in cash and then skimmed money off those fees and pocketed it.

On Dec. 9, 2015, Milam County Tax Assessor-Collector Kolette Barrett Morgan was sentenced to probation after pleading no contest to a state jail felony charge of attempted theft by a public servant of more than $1,500, but less than $20,000.

State District Judge John W. Youngblood placed Morgan on three years deferred adjudication probation and she was also ordered to pay a $2,500 fine, court costs and restitution in an amount to be determined.

A criminal accused Morgan of unlawfully appropriating cash in an amount between $1,500 and $20,000 “pursuant to one scheme or continuing course of conduct.”

Morgan was appointed to the position in October 2010 after working in the tax office for 17 years.

She won election to a full term in the office in 2012.

She resigned after entering the plea.

Original Article: http://www.kwtx.com/content/news/Mother-daughter-employees-of-Central-Texas-tax-office-arrested-470750663.html

Man Switching Odometers Gets Two Years in South Dakota Penitentiary

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A man who lived in Sioux Falls and sold vehicles at River Auto Sales, LLC has been sentenced to two years in the South Dakota Penitentiary.

Chad Michael Blair, 42, formerly of Sioux Falls and currently listed as a resident of Houston Texas, was sentenced November 28 to one count of deceptive trade practices and one count of odometer alteration. Blair was also ordered to pay $3,375 in restitution.

Attorney General Marty Jackley commented on the conviction and subsequent sentencing.

“Tampering with odometers in order to get more money for vehicles from innocent victims is wrong and illegal,” said Jackley. “We will continue to hold responsible individuals who take unfair advantage of consumers.”

According to a statement from the South Dakota Attorney General’s office, Blair managed River Auto Sales, swapping high mileage odometers with lower mileage odometers obtained from a used auto parts retailer. State law requires a notice to be posted with the vehicle of a changed odometer, which was not done.

This case was investigated by South Dakota Division of Revenue and the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division and prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office

Original Article: http://ksoo.com/man-switching-odometers-gets-two-years-in-south-dakota-penitentiary/

Two arrested in misconduct investigation into Denton County Tax Office

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Two people were arrested on bribery charges last month in connection with a misconduct investigation into the Denton County Tax Office.

Former tax office employee Tramanski Johnson, who worked at the Lewisville branch, was booked into Denton County Jail on Sept. 12 after turning himself in on the bribery charge, police said. Juana Caballero, a notary public who allegedly notarized forged documents, was booked on the bribery charge Sept. 11.

The Denton County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case. The affidavit in support of the suspects’ arrest outlines a complex scheme involving bribes to process fraudulent vehicle title transfers.

The tax office collects property taxes, renews vehicle registrations and contracts with several car dealerships to issue titles on new vehicles. The office has six locations within the county, including Lewisville, Cross Roads, Frisco and Flower Mound. The main Denton office is at 1505 E. McKinney St.
County Tax Assessor/Collector Michelle French, who heads the office, declined to comment on specifics of the case.

“I’m not going to comment on any details just because it’s still a pending case,” French said.

A sheriff’s office investigator first learned about allegations of a county employee accepting bribes to process known fraudulent title transfers on July 31, according to the affidavit.

Johnson was identified as the employee, and the investigator reached out to him Aug. 2, the document stated.

Johnson, the affidavit said, admitted that he accepted about 80 cash bribes from Caballero, who also goes by the last name Munoz , to process the fraudulent title transfers.

Johnson said he was paid $100 per transaction.

The affidavit also did not specify who Caballero works for, only that she signed and notarized “several documents as an authorized agent for other dealerships,” the affidavit said.

No car dealerships were identified in the affidavit.

Later in the day on Aug. 2, investigators contacted Caballero at AA Auto Sales in the 1000 block of Texas Street in Lewisville.

Although police said she was a “common link” in the fraudulent transactions, she denied ever giving Johnson paperwork to process. She also said she paid “what she needed to,” but the document did not elaborate on what she meant.

Later in their investigation, police identified at least two title documents, notarized by Caballero, that contained forged signatures, according to the affidavit.

Police obtained arrest warrants for both suspects on Sept. 11.

French said Johnson, a Dallas resident, was hired at the tax office in 2010. She said he took another job for about two years before returning.

Johnson was placed on administrative leave Aug. 2 and submitted a letter of resignation on Aug. 3, according to documents obtained through an open records request.

He most recently worked as an office supervisor, according to the resignation letter.

JULIAN GILL can be reached at 940-566-6882.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated the amount of money involved in the bribery scheme. The affidavit stated the suspect accepted about 80 cash bribes of $100.

Original Article: http://www.dentonrc.com/news/news/2017/10/19/two-arrested-misconduct-investigation-denton-county-tax-office

Emissions test, odometer fraud found at vehicle inspection stations in Harris County, deputies say

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HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — At least two people have been arrested after an investigation revealed the suspects were conducting fraudulent vehicle inspections at two separate stations in Houston, the Harris County Pct. 4 Constable’s Office said.

Investigators received information that BI-LO Used Cars located at 2823 South Shaver Street was allegedly rolling back odometers on used cars and conducting fraudulent vehicle inspections using a procedure called clean scanning.

Clean scanning is when an inspector tricks the monitoring tool by entering in the vehicle identification number for an automobile that would fail an emissions test, but then connects the monitor to a vehicle that would pass. Meanwhile, odometer rollback is the illegal practice of changing or altering the mileage readings on vehicle to make it appear as though it has been driven less than it has.

Investigators report that over a 90 day period 54 percent of the vehicle inspections conducted were unlawful.

Another investigation concentrated on Hardy’s State Inspection located at 12965 W. Hardy Road was also using a “clean scanning” procedure. The shop is a state-licensed vehicle inspection station, deputies said.

The constable’s office reported over a 90 day period 76 percent of the vehicle inspections conducted were unlawful.

Deputies said arrest warrants were executed at both shops, resulting in the arrest of Adel Yacoub and Raymond Mentzel.

Yacoub and Mentzel are each facing two counts of tampering with a governmental record.

Original Article: http://cw39.com/2017/10/20/emissions-test-odometer-fraud-found-at-vehicle-inspection-stations-in-harris-county-deputies-say/

Rolling back’ suspect accused of tampering with hundreds of vehicles

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A Grand Prairie man is accused of rolling back odometers to hundreds of vehicles in Texas. Star-Telegram – Courtesy

GRAND PRAIRIE

Kenneth Rose was on a roll.

But state and local authorities say they have stopped him, shutting down a major odometer fraud operation after a three-year investigation.

Rose, 41, was in custody Wednesday, accused of rolling back odometers on hundreds of Texas vehicles.

“The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles does not tolerate anyone ripping off Texas auto buyers,” said Whitney Brewster, Texas Department of Motor Vehicles director, in a Wednesday news release. “Mileage is a key factor that consumers use when deciding whether to buy a used vehicle. Tampering with an odometer to deceive a buyer is a serious crime that puts innocent Texans’ safety and finances at risk.”

Rose was arrested earlier this month on a charge of tampering with an odometer. He also faces driving while intoxicated and obstructing highway passage charges, according to Tarrant County jail records.

Odometer fraud is the disconnection, resetting or “rolling back” of a vehicle’s odometer with the intent to defraud.

Rose is accused of having contacts with area used-car dealerships.

Officials noted that buyers could pay hundreds or thousands of dollars more for a vehicle if an odometer has been rolled back. In addition, buyers may believe they have a low-mileage vehicle, when it’s actually one with serious safety issues.

Officials with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles will contact victims whose vehicles may have had their odometers rolled back.

The case was investigated by the Tarrant County Regional Auto Crimes Task Force, the Tarrant County district attorney’s office, Fort Worth and Grand Prairie police, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles.

Domingo Ramirez Jr.: 817-390-7763, @mingoramirezjr

Buying tips

  • Do a title check.
  • Check vehicle history reports.
  • Obtain a vehicle inspection report.
  • Write down the vehicle identification number.
  • Examine the interior and exterior of the vehicle carefully.

Source: Texas Department of Motor Vehicles

Better Call Behnken: Owner of Tampa car dealership accused of rolling back odometers arrested Holly Merz July 20, 2017

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by: 

Posted:  / Updated: 

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – The owner of a Tampa car dealership faces 42 felony charges, accused of funneling cars through her company, then rolling back odometers and flipping the vehicles to unsuspecting buyers on Craig’s List.

The arrest of Soreny Marin Vargas comes after an 8 On Your Side investigation shined a light on one of the “low mileage” deals.

Florida Highway Patrol investigated and found other victims.

Marin Vargas faces multiple charges of uttering a forged instrument, scheme to defraud and odometer fraud.

Investigators say Marin Vargas used her dealership, Tampa Preferred Motors, to buy high mileage cars at auctions and from other dealerships.

She would then, according to FHP, “solicit family members in Venezuela to provide her copies of their passports in order to use their information to title vehicles in their names.”

The dealership, investigators say, would then roll the odometers back to reflect a significantly lower mileage and then sell those cars to unsuspecting buyers on Craig’s List.

One of those buyers, Mary Ellen Morgan, turned to 8 On Your Side in February, after she bought a van on Craig’s List. It was advertised as having 108,000 miles, but it actually had nearly 178,000 miles.

The van had trouble on the way home, after Morgan paid $5,000 in cash to someone representing Marin Vargas. The deal was made in a Target parking lot in Brandon.

Morgan is thrilled to hear of the arrest and she’s hopeful she’ll get her money back so she can buy a more reliable van.

“I can’t go very far with this van because it is not in the best of shape,” Morgan said, adding that she hopes this arrest will save other car buyers from going through the same trouble.

Police make arrests in months-long odometer-tampering scheme

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The Philomath Police Department culminated a five-month investigation Wednesday morning with the arrests of three men in connection with alleged odometer tampering through an auto sales operation.

Cody Kin Marten, 21, of Philomath, faces four counts each for unlawful tampering with an odometer, theft by deception and conspiracy to commit theft — all felonies. Jeffrey Lynn Watters, 27, of Corvallis, and London Rae Fields, 22, of Corvallis, were cited for felony unlawful tampering with an odometer.

“We have seized over a hundred titles and sales documents from the suspects and in the coming weeks, we are going to put out on the Philomath website, vehicles and license plate numbers that we know were sold by these individuals,” Philomath Chief of Police Ken Rueben said. “We are hoping to have victims contact us and verify what their vehicle was and what the odometer reading was on those cars.”

Philomath police seized about 24 vehicles from JW Auto Sales at 3065 SE Third St., in South Corvallis as part of Wednesday’s operation. Watters registered JW Auto Sales with the state Nov. 4 and has been leasing space from B&R Auto Wrecking since December, according to B&R assistant manager Todd Boshart.

JW Auto Sales added Fields as a co-owner through an amended license with the state April 4. Watters and Fields are roommates at 5915 Philomath Blvd., in Corvallis.

“They’ve been buying parts from us for about two years, flipping cars,” said Boshart, who described the two partners as “super-nice guys” and said they had created no problems for B&R in the time they had leased space on the property.

Philomath police worked in partnership with the Corvallis Police Department on the case.

While serving the search warrant at Marten’s address at 1218 Monroe St., in Philomath, police stumbled upon a marijuana-growing operation.

“What we learned yesterday is that it appears — based on the interviews and our records — is that one of the suspects was selling cars on Craigslist and also taking marijuana in trade or partial trade for the cost of the vehicle,” Rueben said. “There was code language put in the ads to alert people that are in the marijuana field that if they saw this code language in the ad, that it would be possible to trade marijuana or partially trade marijuana for the sale of the vehicle.”

Marten does have a license to grow marijuana.

The investigation in the odometer-tampering operation dates back to Jan. 7, when a Corvallis woman filed a report with Philomath police over discoveries involving a Subaru Forester that she had purchased through a Philomath-based Craigslist ad.

“Shortly after she purchased the car, she took it to Oil Can Henry’s in Corvallis to have the oil changed and Oil Can Henry’s — as many of the local maintenance shops do — now use Carfax to track maintenance for these cars,” Rueben said.

Carfax offers a fee-based service to the public that supplies vehicle history reports, including odometer information.

“They advised her at that time that the odometer that she currently had on her car was about 150,000 miles less than the last time it was in their shop, or in an Oil Can Henry’s facility,” Rueben said. “She felt that something was wrong and came to our office to report it.”

Police caught a break through Carfax, which makes accounts available to law-enforcement agencies, and contacted the prior owner of the Subaru Forester, a former Corvallis resident who had moved to Salem.

“We contacted him and he told us that he sold this car to one of the individuals we arrested for $800 and it had a blown head gasket and was barely running,” Rueben said. “The advertisement on Craigslist said the car had 156,000 miles on it and when she got the car, that’s what it had. The Carfax report said the last time that car was in for maintenance … it had 229,000 miles on it.”

The suspects flipped the vehicle and sold it to the victim for $3,600 — a profit for them of $2,800 in less than a week.

“The electronic odometers of today’s cars, many of them take special tools to actually access the instrument cluster where the odometer is,” Rueben said.

The victim’s car was taken to a Corvallis garage and it was discovered that the entire odometer mechanism had been replaced.

The investigation progressed with a search warrant served on Craigslist to be able to access posted ads going back over a year. Many of those ads included photos of cars and in some of those, images of the license plates could be seen. Police compared mileage claims in the ad with odometer readings through Carfax.

“We found that eight of the cars that we looked at out of about 20 that the odometer was significantly different than what was on their ad, or what it should’ve been in reality,” Rueben said. “We knew we had a group of people that were doing this and victimizing people using Craigslist to sell these vehicles.”

The investigation also ventured into cellphone records and Facebook accounts and police conducted surveillance at numerous locations where cars were worked on and sold in Corvallis and Philomath. It all added up to the four search warrants served Wednesday — at the Watters and Fields residence, the Marten residence, JW Auto Sales and an auto garage workshop near the Corvallis airport.

Two of the suspects were cooperative with the investigation.

“We interviewed the three suspects and two of the suspects were cooperative and admitted that they had rolled back odometers on cars prior to opening their business for the purpose of raising money to open a legal business, which is JW Auto Sales,” Rueben said. “We don’t know how many victims we have yet.”

Police will now follow up by eventually publishing an online list of all the cars that have been sold through the suspects over the past year “in hopes that we can verify if they were defrauded or not.”

Rueben said it took about three hours to move the 24 or so vehicles from JW Auto Sales to its storage location near Philomath. The department saved on expenses by avoiding tow trucks and having city staff drive the vehicles to the lot, which is made available to local police at no cost. Also among the items seized were vehicle instrument panels with odometers intact.

Original Article: http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/police-make-arrests-in-months-long-odometer-tampering-scheme/article_1e8d3921-337b-548b-b1df-a97beb33bb32.html