Eleven fraudulent car dealers sold more than 100,000 phony temporary plates, depriving taxpayers of about $15 million. The fake tags turned vehicles into “ghost cars” connected to at least six homicides and thousands of other offenses, according to federal prosecutors. The plates were sold through companies set up in Georgia and New Jersey, enabled by lax rules in those states. Felix De Jesus Jimenez operated from a compound in Bridgeton, New Jersey, with no visible inventory or sales staff, yet sold more than 36,000 tags in 2021. Jeffrey Herrera ran a fraudulent Georgia dealership that issued more than 20,000 temporary tags in 2023. Prosecutors identified only 10 companies, despite hundreds of dealerships previously found issuing up to 200,000 fake tags during the pandemic.
"Eleven fraudulent car dealers - including several who were identified in Streetsblog's award-winning April 2023 investigation into the black market for fake temporary tags - sold more than 100,000 phony plates, robbing taxpayers of about $15 million and turning those vehicles into "ghost cars" that were involved in at least six homicides and thousands of other offenses, federal prosecutors said in indictments unsealed on Wednesday."
"The fake tags were sold, as Streetsblog reported, through companies set up in Georgia and New Jersey thanks to lax rules in those states. One man from both the indictment and the Streetsblog series, Felix De Jesus Jimenez, operated his dealership out of a notorious compound in Bridgeton, New Jersey. Despite no visible inventory of cars, nor any sales people working at the location, Jimenez sold more than 36,000 tags in 2021 - which, if true, would have been more than used-car juggernauts Carvana and CarMax ... combined."
"The only way to legitimately obtain a temporary tag is to buy a car from a licensed dealership; Jimenez was licensed by New Jersey, but if he was truly selling cars, he would have had to move 98 vehicles every day of the year - an impossibility given the dealership location and inventory: Jeffrey Herrera, also first identified by Streetsblog, is a Yonkers resident who ran a fraudulent Georgia dealership that issued more than 20,000 temp tags in 2023, the most in the Peachtree State that year, authorities said."
"The 10 companies identified by federal prosecutors in the indictments are a small fraction of the hundreds of New Jersey and Georgia dealerships that Streetsblog found had issued as many as 200,000 fake temp tags during the height of the pandemic, when fake plates became common on New York City streets. After that series was published, Georgia"
#fake-temporary-tags #car-dealership-fraud #ghost-cars #taxpayer-loss #georgia-and-new-jersey-loopholes
Read at Streetsblog New York City
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