39 charged with felonies involving high-end car thefts from 6 states, title fraud in Ohio
An investigation involving 27 law enforcement agencies from multiple states has resulted in the indictment of 39 Northeast Ohio residents, including four Akronites, in a scheme involving stolen or forged car titles and the sale of 34 high-end stolen vehicles.
The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office announced Thursday that 33 of the defendants were involved in a title fraud scheme involving 34 expensive vehicles that had been stolen in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, New York, and California. The thefts took place over about two years, from January 2021 to March this year.
The group of mostly Cuyahoga County residents were charged with felonies including third-degree felony tampering with records, F-4 and F-5 receiving stolen property and forgery and unclassified felony motor vehicle certificate of title offenses.
The six other defendants were charged with receiving stolen property.
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The individuals involved in the fraud allegedly put new new VIN numbers on the stolen vehicles that matched the vehicle description. The defendants then allegedly took stolen automobile titles from Georgia or forged South Carolina titles to Ohio BMV offices and obtained Ohio titles for the stolen vehicles.
"After the VIN and Ohio title matched, they would sell the high-end vehicles for a significantly lessamount than the vehicle’s sticker price," the prosecutor's office said.
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The office said arraignments will be at the Cuyahoga County Justice Center and the investigation remains ongoing.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 39 area residents indicted in multi-state car theft, title fraud plot
