Fraudulent Luxury Car Buyer Sentenced to Prison

A Hyattsville man was sentenced Wednesday by a federal judge to spend 61 months in prison for using stolen identities in an attempt to buy nearly $1 million worth of BMWs and other luxury cars.

Juan Carlos Willis, 41, of Hyattsville was sentenced to prison, followed by three years of supervised release for conspiring to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in a scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Maryland.

The total attempted loss as a result of the fraudulent scheme was between $400,000 and $1 million from dealerships in Montgomery and Prince George’s County, authorities say.

According to his plea agreement, Willis, Kenneth Watford, 55, of Bowie, Flinton Newton, 34, of Bartlett, TN, and others stole people’s identities, created false documents in their names, then posed as those individuals at automotive dealerships in order to apply for vehicle financing. Willis and his co-conspirators filled out credit applications and obtained loans in the names of the identity theft victims to purchase, or attempt to buy, expensive cars from dealers in Bowie, Silver Spring, Greenbelt and in Virginia. They intended to either use the luxury vehicles themselves, or rent or sell them.

On June 23, 2012, Willis, Watford and a co-conspirator used the identity of another person to complete and submit a credit application for $77,450 in financing at BMW of Silver Spring, Maryland, to purchase a 2011 BMW 750. On July 26, 2012, Watford was arrested while driving the BMW in Bowie, Maryland. Inside the BMW were the victim’s credit reports from three credit bureaus.

The three men were arrested in 2012 after separate efforts using fake identity documents to buy a $80,663 Cadillac Escalade at Capitol Cadillac in Greenbelt; and a 2012 Mercedes-Benz CL550 and a 2009 Mercedez-Benz S550 for a total of $120,056 at Mercedes-Benz of Silver Spring.

Willis told authorities that his role in the scheme was to locate vehicles and provide insurance information.

Newton previously pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme and was sentenced to 42 months in prison.

A federal jury convicted Watford on April 16 of conspiring to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, attempting to commit wire fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, possessing a firearm by a convicted felon, credit card fraud and two counts of attempted credit card fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 28.