A Florida car dealer tried to ship a stolen $460,000 Rolls-Royce overseas. It did not go well for him

He was also ordered to forfeit $378,886.96, “the proceeds of the conspiracy to commit wire fraud,” the USAO said in a release.

According to court documents, Fakih and a co-conspirator targeted auto financing companies, submitting fraudulent loan applications through his dealership website. He and his co-conspirators collaborated with pretend buyers (straw purchasers) who had no intention of purchasing a car.

Fakih would then collect the loan money and give a cut of the money to his co-conspirator and straw purchasers. He also used the fraudulently obtained loan money to purchase cars and try to export them.

In what the USAO describes as a “more straightforward theft,” Fakih used a straw purchaser to procure a stolen Rolls-Royce Cullinan SUV worth $460,000, and then tried to export it overseas — but the shipping container was seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The USAO reports that Fakih also filed false insurance claims for vehicles, reporting them as stolen.

Impacts of fraud

When it comes to auto loans and purchasing, fraud impacts both consumers and lenders.

Between March and September 2023, fraud-related losses for auto loans were 21 times greater than for losses due to credit card fraud, and six times as great as losses due to unsecured personal loan fraud, according to a TransUnion report (2).

The risk-management platform Point Predictive estimated (3) that auto lenders faced a $9.2 billion risk of fraud in 2025 and that 69% of that would be down to borrowers and dealers misrepresenting information on loan applications — using false identities, or falsifying employment or financial information to qualify for a loan.

Dealer fraud can also include schemes where dealers collaborate with fraudsters; they could falsify loan documents, or inflate vehicle prices, leaving lenders with a loss when loans default.

This could force lenders and financial institutions to pass on the costs (4) to consumers in the form of higher interest rates or less favorable loan terms.