Man scammed Tesla out of 5 new cars — and set one he couldn’t sell ablaze, feds say
A man caused Tesla to give him five new cars worth more than $560,000 — without paying the full price — and set one ablaze on the surface of a frozen lake, federal prosecutors said. Now he’s going to prison.
In 2018 and 2019, the 34-year-old, of Shelburne, Vermont, scammed Tesla by reserving five of the company’s cars for purchasing while having no plans to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for them, according to prosecutors.
After paying down payments of about $2,500 for each car, he initiated money transfers from his bank account, which didn’t have enough funds, to make it appear as if he was going to pay the rest of the remaining balances of the vehicles, an indictment says.
Before his scheme was discovered, two cars were delivered to the man while he picked up the other three himself, according to the indictment.
He sold three of the cars to other people for $231,900, according to prosecutors who said he lied to the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles to receive the titles for the cars.
When the man couldn’t sell a fourth Tesla because he did not receive a manufacturer’s certificate of origin that allows a vehicle to be titled and registered, he drove it out onto the frozen waters of Lake Champlain in Shelburne Bay and burned it down in February 2019, according to prosecutors.
He later said he drove the Tesla on the lake to go night fishing, without having a state license to do so, when the Tesla “caught fire,” the indictment says.
Then he submitted an insurance claim to Geico to try to obtain the full value of the Tesla he destroyed, according to the indictment.
As a result of his scam, U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford sentenced the man to four years in prison on Oct. 11, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont announced in an Oct. 12 news release.
His sentencing comes after he previously pleaded guilty to five counts of possessing and disposing of stolen vehicles that crossed state lines, prosecutors said.
McClatchy News contacted the man’s defense attorney, Chandler Matson, for comment on Oct. 13 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
In a statement to MarketWatch, Matson said his client “took full responsibility for his actions.”
As part of the man’s sentencing, he was ordered to pay $493,043.93 in restitution to Tesla and forfeit $231,900 to the government, prosecutors said.
Matson told MarketWatch his client “showed true remorse and commitment to restitution and respect for the justice system.”
The man’s prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release, according to prosecutors.
Shelburne is about 135 miles northeast of Albany, New York.
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