PHOENIX – Detectives with ADOT’s Office of Inspector General have arrested a car dealer employee for allegedly committing numerous thefts against his Phoenix-based car dealership and its customers.

Eduardo Rodriguez was employed at a few used car dealerships in Phoenix. He sold dealership cars to customers and after collecting cash payments, the allegations include that Rodriguez kept payments instead of turning them into his employer. Additionally, Rodriguez would sell the same car to more than one customer and pocket the cash payments. He would also sell customers bogus warranty policies. 

All three dealerships eventually discovered the numerous thefts he had committed and contacted ADOT’s Office of Inspector General. ADOT detectives learned Rodriguez purchased a vehicle from one of the dealers he worked for and financed it. A few days after buying the vehicle with the provided financing, Rodriguez sold the vehicle privately to an unsuspecting victim. Because Rodriguez defaulted on the loan, his former employer was required to buy it back. 

ADOT detectives also discovered the other instances of theft against the dealerships and customers. Rodriguez was arrested and charged with fraud schemes, theft and forgery. 

Generally speaking, when it comes to buying a used vehicle either from a used car dealer or in a private sale, ADOT recommends taking time and asking lots of questions and doing your research. There are no dumb questions in a big purchase like this. If the seller is acting suspiciously, being evasive or uncooperative, walk away. Take the time to find the right purchase.

Tips can be found on ADOT’s website at azdot.gov/CarBuyingTips. 

PHOENIX – Detectives with the Arizona Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General have arrested a used car dealer after he allegedly cheated customers and lenders out of hundreds of thousands of dollars through fraudulent schemes and practices.

During the course of the investigation, detectives discovered that Farhad Kankash, owner of Onyx Motorsports in Tempe, had allegedly committed several types of fraud, including failing to provide titles to customers who purchased vehicles, not paying off liens on trade-in vehicles, and defrauding lenders by obtaining multiple loans for the same vehicle.

Through a special titling process known as the director’s letter, ADOT was able to provide most of the victims with the titles they needed for the vehicles they purchased. The director’s letter process allows ADOT to provide a letter of title to the owner of a vehicle when there is sufficient evidence to show the vehicle belongs to that person.

One of the largest fraud schemes involved a customer who purchased a 2014 Bentley from Onyx Motorsports. After obtaining a loan for the vehicle from his bank, the customer was not satisfied with the car and returned it. Kankash allegedly not only did not refund the customer’s money, but obtained a loan for the same vehicle for $60,000. He then turned around and sold it to another local car dealer under the Onyx dealership name. This allowed Kankash to allegedly obtain more than approximately $200,000 from three different sources for the same vehicle.

On other occasions, Kankash is alleged to have failed to pay off the liens of vehicles traded in to the dealership leaving the customers with two vehicle loans to pay off. On at least one occasion, Kankash not only failed to pay off the lien of a trade-in, he turned around and sold the vehicle to another customer. This allowed the dealership to profit off the trade-in while leaving the previous owner of the vehicle stuck with paying it off.

Kankash also allegedly committed fraud against lending companies. On one occasion, Kankash obtained two loans from two different lending companies for the same vehicle, a 2014 Land Rover. Each loan was worth over $60,000, and Kankash used trade-in vehicles that were not his as collateral for the loans.

Kankash was arrested at his Scottsdale home on Sept. 23. He was booked into the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Fourth Avenue Jail on 14 felony counts for theft and fraudulent schemes.

In addition to fraud by licensed and unlicensed dealers, detectives with ADOT’s Office of Inspector General investigate identity theft, fraud involving vehicle title and registration, and support investigations by state, local and federal law enforcement. 

PHOENIX – Working to protect people around the country from fraud involving used cars, state investigators have broken up a major criminal operation based in the East Valley that illegally produced tens of thousands of titles for vehicles being sold in 42 states.

With seven arrests made on Wednesday, Feb. 19, this is by far the largest operation broken up since Governor Doug Ducey signed legislation in 2018 creating the Arizona Curbstone Enforcement Joint Task Force, which combines the resources of ADOT’s Office of Inspector General, Arizona Department of Revenue and Arizona Independent Automobile Dealers Association. This task force combats vehicle sales made in violation of state laws governing dealer licensing, a practice known as curbstoning.

“Our partnership with the Department of Revenue was invaluable by bringing their investigators in to assist,” said Lt. James Warriner with ADOT’s Office of Inspector General, part of the agency’s Enforcement and Compliance Division. “Together, our agencies are delivering a one-two punch to stop curbstoning and illegal vehicle sales in Arizona.”

The case involves a scheme in which individuals allegedly subscribed to one of several websites identified by investigators to obtain wholesale and retail dealer license credentials from the suspects, rather than the state, for a monthly fee, usually in the hundreds of dollars. These credentials allowed about 1,500 individuals to attend and bid on vehicles at wholesale auctions in their states.

The operation also altered vehicle titles from these subscribers for about $100 per title to make it appear as though the individuals bought the vehicles from one of the suspects’ 31 operations with dealer licenses. More than 31,000 titles were processed this way over the past couple of years, and many of the vehicles involved were never in Arizona.

The operation has generated around $7 million fraudulently over the past couple of years.

ADOT detectives and Department of Revenue investigators, joined by special agents with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, served search warrants at six locations last week, including homes in Chandler and Gilbert and at a storefront in Mesa, arresting the suspects and searching for further evidence. Each suspect is facing multiple charges, including the felonies of fraudulent schemes and artifices, money laundering and tax evasion.

Curbstoning involves selling vehicles in a way that violates the parameters set by a dealer’s license. That could mean selling more than six vehicles in a consecutive 12-month period for an unlicensed dealer, or selling vehicles away from the designated area of sale for a licensed dealer.

In this case, licensed dealers are accused of illegally consigning their licenses out to other individuals in other states, allowing those individuals to bypass paying taxes, registration fees and laws regarding vehicle dealers.

Curbstoned vehicles typically involve other violations such as title fraud, odometer fraud and covered-up flood damage. Consumers in the market for used vehicles should do their homework before handing over any money.

When dealing with cases of curbstoning, ADOT detectives will share case information with Department of Revenue investigators and even bring them along to check out curbstoning sites.

In addition to fraud by licensed and unlicensed dealers, detectives with ADOT’s Office of Inspector General investigate identity theft, fraud involving vehicle title and registration, and support investigations by state, local and federal law enforcement.

PHOENIX – Identity theft involving Arizona driver licenses and ID cards. Used vehicle deals in which buyers can’t get titles transferred to their names. Unlicensed dealers flipping salvaged vehicles to unsuspecting buyers in a practice known as curbstoning.

As the state agency responsible for driver licenses and IDs, vehicle titles and more, the Arizona Department of Transportation is responsible for investigating these and other crimes through an Office of Inspector General staffed by detectives with extensive law enforcement experience.

These detectives, all of them Arizona POST-certified peace officers, will investigate fraud involving vehicle dealers, unlicensed vehicle dealers, vehicle titles, and driver licenses and state ID cards. Their duties include preventing identity theft by using facial recognition techniques and technology to detect individuals who attempt to obtain driver licenses and ID cards under the names of others.

“It makes sense for ADOT to employ detectives to investigate these kinds of cases since the Motor Vehicle Division, also under ADOT, has the information needed to help resolve these matters,” said Tim Lane, director of ADOT’s Enforcement and Compliance Division, which includes the Office of Inspector General. “Our detectives can investigate these cases quickly and efficiently by having direct access to MVD’s databases.”

While most of the 215 officers with ADOT’s Enforcement and Compliance Division man ports of entry to enforce laws involving commercial vehicles, about 40 are detectives with the mission of preventing fraud. Whatever their role, officers with the Enforcement and Compliance Division officers have the same level of certification and training as officers with other law enforcement agencies around the state.

And like officers with other law enforcement agencies in Arizona, they must be prepared for the unexpected, whether they are serving an arrest warrant on someone suspected of identity theft or are inspecting trucks at a commercial port of entry. As a result, they carry firearms.

“All law enforcement work, including that in ADOT’s field of focus, always involves risk,” Lane said. “As we’ve seen recently, having certified officers with the proper training certainly helps keep our officers safe.”

ADOT detectives use a variety of methods to solve cases, including facial recognition techniques and technology. Over the past few years, detectives have solved more than 150 cases using the facial recognition, such as nabbing a 40-year fugitive from New York, an 89-year-old man who collected nearly $300,000 in stolen Social Security benefits and a man using the stolen identity of an infant who died in a 1982 homicide to avoid paying child support.

Detectives also use undercover sting operations to catch unlicensed dealers selling more vehicles than allowed by state law in a 12-month period. One such investigation led to the arrest of an Avondale man who had sold 124 vehicles in 11 months without a dealer’s license.

Other agencies will also bring potential fraud cases to the Office of Inspector General. Last summer, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office alerted detectives to a Valley used car dealer who was trying to sell the same vehicle multiple times online without delivering the title after payment was made. ADOT detectives opened an investigation that led to his arrest for theft of the buyer’s money without delivering the vehicle.

“Our detectives are very proactive and good at what they do,” Lane said. “Their skill in solving identity theft cases, title fraud and stopping unlicensed dealers is unparalleled. Other agencies will often come to us for help in solving these types of cases.”

PHOENIX – Arizona Department of Transportation detectives have arrested a Chandler resident whose nursing license was revoked for insurance fraud after she allegedly used a stolen identity to try and obtain a new nursing license.

Laura Lynn Bell, 40, used a falsified Arizona driver license and a Superior Court name change form to petition her alma mater, the University of South Alabama, to change the name on her official transcripts to another person’s name in an attempt to get a new nursing license.

The university became suspicious of Bell’s request and contacted the Arizona State Board of Nursing, which in turn contacted the Arizona Department of Insurance, which brought the original insurance fraud case against her. Those agencies requested assistance from ADOT’s Office of Inspector General since a forged credential was involved.

When ADOT detectives served a warrant at Bell’s home on Dec. 12, they found forged court documents and other papers listing the other individual’s name. They also obtained a forged driver license created on Bell’s computer.

Bell was arrested and booked at the Fourth Avenue Jail on new counts of forgery and identity fraud in addition to the insurance fraud case previously brought against her.

PHOENIX – A Gilbert man who manages a used car dealership has been arrested for selling a vehicle with a false odometer reading in addition to other violations by detectives with the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General.

Mikel Martinez, 37, manager of Auto Link of Arizona, had recently sold a 2013 Chevrolet E2500 Cargo Van stating that it had 159,000 miles on it. Unbeknownst to the buyer, the vehicle had actually racked up over 303,000 miles.

The buyer originally came to OIG because Martinez had not provided the title or registration for the van. Martinez had also informed her that she was being financed through BHFC Financial Services; however, when the buyer contacted the company, it had no record of her.

ADOT’s Office of Inspector General took up the case and opened an investigation that led detectives to discover that the vehicle mileage on the title had been altered from when it was first titled to Auto Link of Arizona.

When Martinez was called in to OIG headquarters regarding the odometer tampering, detectives discovered that in addition to altering the mileage, Martinez removed the letter “C” designation on the vehicle’s title. A letter “C” indicates the true mileage of the vehicle is unknown. It was also discovered that he had a fictitious dealer plate on his vehicle that was made of laminated paper.

Martinez was arrested and booked at the Fourth Avenue Jail on Sept. 21 and is currently facing counts of fraudulent schemes, forgery, tampering with a public record, displaying a fictitious plate and odometer fraud.

While ADOT’s Office of Inspector General stands ready to assist those who’ve fallen victim to fraud, ADOT has car-buying tips that can be found on the agency’s website at azdot.gov/CarBuyingTips.

Beware of odometer fraud.

• Check the odometer reading on the vehicle instrument cluster and compare it to what is listed on the back of the title from the seller and any odometer information contained in any vehicle history reports or repair invoices. Also check the title to see if the actual mileage is listed (Box A).
• A typical vehicle is driven about 15,000 miles per year. If the odometer mileage of a vehicle shows much less than that average annual usage, it could be an indicator that the odometer has been rolled back, and worth further inspection.
• Have a trusted mechanic check the odometer for signs of tampering and for wear on the vehicle to see if it’s in line with the displayed mileage. A mechanic can also check the vehicle computer for mileage.

Use good judgment and ask lots of questions. There are no stupid questions when it comes to protecting yourself in a big purchase. Do this:

• Ask for identification to make sure the seller is the owner listed on the title.
• Ask to see vehicle maintenance records.
• Check the VIN on the inside of the driver’s door frame and on the top of the dashboard to make sure they match.
• Check for VIN tampering such as the door frame sticker peeled off and replaced, and altered rivets on the dashboard plaque.

The most important thing to do is to take time and not rush the process. If the seller is acting suspiciously, unwilling to show ID or records or trying to rush the process, walk away. Take the time to find the right purchase.

Seek help if you’ve been scammed. ADOT is here to help victims of fraud involving vehicle titles, registrations and driver licenses. Call our 24-hour fraud hotline at 877.712.2370 or email [email protected].

PHOENIX – A Glendale resident who allegedly used his brother’s identity to apply for an Arizona driver license was revealed to have a felony warrant out of Illinois and has been charged with forgery thanks to Arizona Department of Transportation detectives’ use of facial recognition training and technology.

In late February, Luis Castro, 32, applied for an Arizona driver license using the name, date of birth and Social Security number of his brother at the Glendale MVD office.

ADOT’s facial recognition system found that Castro’s photo did not match the previous photo under his brother’s profile. Detectives, who have FBI training in facial recognition, confirmed this was the case and opened an investigation.

ADOT’s investigation found that Castro’s photo matched a booking photo from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois. Digging further, detectives found that Castro had an extraditable felony warrant out of Cook County for aggravated assault, aggravated robbery and prohibited possessor of firearms.

Confirming that fraud had taken place, OIG canceled the permanent credential. When Castro called MVD looking for his driver license that hadn’t shown up in the mail, detectives made arrangements with him to meet at the West Phoenix MVD office on April 17 where Castro believed he was picking up the fraudulent credential.

ADOT detectives arrested Castro in the parking lot on counts of forgery and the felony warrant out of Illinois. He was booked at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Fourth Avenue Jail.

This case is one more example of how facial recognition technology used by ADOT’s Office of Inspector General protects Arizonans’ identities and helps prevent fraud involving state-issued driver licenses and identification cards. 

PHOENIX – Arizona Department of Transportation officers stopped a drug smuggling operation when they found 108 pounds of marijuana and other drug paraphernalia stashed in the trunk of a vehicle on a car hauler in western Arizona.

On Wednesday, officers with ADOT’s Enforcement and Compliance Division spotted the truck using a county road near Parker used by drivers seeking to avoid ports of entry at Ehrenberg along Interstate 10 and at Parker along State Route 95. After stopping the truck on SR 95, ADOT officers obtained consent from the driver to conduct a search.

In the trunk of a 2009 Mercedes Benz sedan atop the car carrier, officers found dozens of bags of marijuana, vials of oil extracted from marijuana plants and drug paraphernalia.

The investigation has been turned over to ADOT’s Office of Inspector General to follow up on the driver of the car hauler and owner of the vehicle that contained the marijuana.

PHOENIX – A Goodyear resident who used stolen identities to obtain Arizona commercial driver licenses, open a business and purchase a home was arrested thanks to Arizona Department of Transportation detectives’ use of facial recognition training and technology.

When Jose Casas, 41, visited a Motor Vehicle Division office Dec. 6 to renew his commercial driver license, the system found that his photo closely resembled two others in ADOT’s database. ADOT detectives with FBI training in facial recognition determined that all three of the photos were of Casas.

In 2007, Casas applied for an Arizona commercial driver license using a forged Illinois commercial driver license under the name of a Texas resident. He then used the stolen identity to open a trucking business, purchase vehicles for the business, and purchase personal vehicles and a house in Goodyear.

Detectives served a search warrant Feb. 7 at Casas’ Goodyear residence and arrested him. Casas was booked at the Maricopa County Fourth Avenue Jail on several counts of forgery and fraud schemes as well as mortgage fraud.

After being fingerprinted, detectives discovered that Casas had an outstanding warrant from 1996 in Illinois for failure to appear on drug charges, including delivery of narcotic drugs and possession of cocaine. He was booked as a fugitive after the state of Illinois verified the warrant. 

The investigation also found that Casas had two other Arizona commercial driver licenses under stolen identities, both of which are currently under medical suspension.

This case is one more example of how facial recognition technology used by ADOT’s Office of Inspector General protects Arizonans’ identities and helps prevent fraud involving state-issued driver licenses and identification cards.

ADOT’s Office of the Inspector General investigates fraud involving driver license and identification card applications; vehicle sales by licensed and unlicensed dealers; and vehicle titles and registration. It also assists state, local and federal law enforcement agencies with investigations.

PHOENIX – Since the Arizona Department of Transportation began using facial recognition technology and training in 2015 to protect Arizonans from identity theft, detectives have brought more than 100 cases to court.

It’s a process that begins when a person applies for or renews a driver license or ID card at a Motor Vehicle Division office or Authorized Third Party business, and it is a seamless part of the customer’s visit.

After the customer’s picture is taken, the photo goes through a check against all others in the state driver license database while the customer finishes the application process.

All of the analysis takes place inside a computer, and if the system finds the applicant’s photo likely matches another photo under a different name, it flags the photos, putting a temporary stop on printing the permanent card. The photos are then sent to FBI-trained staff members at ADOT’s Office of Inspector General where they undergo three levels of review to verify that the photos are of the same person.

“This high-tech tool has really enhanced our ability to catch identity thieves,” said Michael Lockhart, chief of the Office of Inspector General. “When we couple this technology with other security measures like central credential issuance, it allows us to stop these criminals and keep Arizona IDs out of their hands.”

 

The detectives and staff members are trained to look for similarities in facial features and even account for identical twins. If photos are confirmed to be the same person on multiple profiles, ADOT detectives will open an investigation.

If detectives determine that a person is committing fraud, the license or ID card is never printed. The temporary credentials customers receive at MVD offices and Authorized Third Party businesses expire after 30 days.

ADOT’s Office of Inspector General investigates fraud involving driver license and identification card applications; vehicle sales by licensed and unlicensed dealers; and vehicle titles and registration. It also assists state, local and federal law enforcement agencies with investigations.

For more information about applying for an Arizona driver license or ID card, please visit: azdot.gov/driverlicenseinfo.