A Denver grand jury last month indicted 12 people in a wide-ranging, multistate scheme that involved stealing sports cars through an elaborate predatory towing operation.
The dozen defendants face 187 counts in all, including forgery, motor vehicle theft and defrauding creditors, the government and insurance companies.
Investigators say the individuals used their towing businesses to steal Lamborghini sports cars and other high-end vehicles, then sold them for more than $2.5 million.
The enterprise sent tow truck drivers to traffic accident scenes to solicit business, who then lied to get permission to tow the vehicles, according to the indictment. Prosecutors alleged that once they had the cars, they charged exorbitant prices for owners to get them back. Some people paid the fees, while others just abandoned their property.
The indicted individuals often wrapped the stolen vehicles in a film, changed the color of the cars and added custom wheels to conceal their identities, investigators said.
The group also targeted people who were behind on their car payments, claiming to work with banks to resolve loans and obtain legal titles for the vehicles, the indictment alleged. They routinely forged Department of Motor Vehicles documents to fraudulently obtain titles, then sold the cars to unsuspecting buyers, prosecutors said.
The investigation, overseen by the Denver District Attorney’s Office, was led by the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority’s Colorado Metropolitan Auto Theft Task Force, with help from the state Division of Motor Vehicles, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission and the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
“As the indictment alleges, this investigation uncovered a multi-year criminal enterprise that used stolen tow trucks to tow cars under false pretenses here in the Denver metro area,” Denver District Attorney John Walsh said in a statement announcing the indictments.
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Source: www.denverpost.com
