COLUMBUS, Ohio - An Ohio man and a Texas man pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to crimes related to an auto-loan scheme in Texas and Columbus, Ohio that netted more than $2.6 million in fraudulent loans from at least nine financial institutions.
Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, William Cheung, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation and Yvonne DiCristoforo, Special Agent in Charge, United States Secret Service, announced the pleas entered into yesterday afternoon before U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson.
According to court documents, from at least August 2014 through April 2018, Watson and Johnson recruited people who were qualified for membership in eligibility-based financial institutions like USAA, Navy Federal Credit Union and Pentagon Federal Credit Union to create accounts at those institutions.
Albert Watson, 37, of Columbus, Ohio, and Rassaun E. Johnson, 46, of Texas, then caused fraudulent loan applications to be submitted to the financial institutions.
Initially, the defendants simply inflated the sales price of actual vehicle sales to pocket the difference. Eventually, loan applications were submitted when there was no actual transfer of vehicle.
In many cases, multiple fraudulent auto loan applications were submitted on a single vehicle, with no intention that the vehicle’s ownership would transfer in accordance with the information submitted on the auto loan applications. The loans obtained were as large as $40,000.
In total, the financial institutions funded at least $2,680,423.26 million in loans that Watson and Johnson and others obtained by fraud.
Watson and Johnson each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud (punishable by up to 30 years in prison) and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering (punishable by up to 20 years in prison).
As part of their pleas, they have agreed to pay the more than $2.6 million in restitution.
U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the investigation of this case by the IRS-Criminal Investigation and U.S. Secret Service, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Peter K. Glenn-Applegate, who is representing the United States in this case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
