Suffolk prosecutors charge dozens in alleged $5.5M vehicle fraud scheme

Vehicles obtained from Long Island car dealerships using fraudulent loan documents were resold across the region in a multimillion-dollar scheme that involved erasing liens and forging DMV paperwork, prosecutors revealed in Suffolk County Criminal Court Wednesday.

The alleged enterprise, led for more than three years by two half brothers residing in Suffolk, involved the fraudulent purchase of more than 130 vehicles, which were sold to online dealerships like CarMax, on Facebook Marketplace or to coconspirators carrying backpacks full of cash to New York City meetup spots, Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Blythe Miller told acting Supreme Court Justice Steven Pilewski at a series of arraignments in Riverhead. The scheme began in March 2022 and continued through the present day, prosecutors said.

"The defendants unlawfully obtained vehicles by forging and falsifying loan applications and supporting documents, fraudulently removed the liens from the vehicle titles through various criminal methods ... and then resold the unlawfully obtained vehicles in Suffolk County and elsewhere," Miller told the court.

She said prosecutors believe the total amount garnered from the scheme could be more than $5.5 million.

In total, 33 individuals and two Suffolk businesses were charged in the scheme, according to court documents filed Wednesday. Each of the defendants faces up to 25 years in prison under the top charged in a grand jury indictment accusing them of enterprise corruption, prosecutors said.

The alleged ringleaders, brothers Mark McCall and Keith Agard, are alleged to have worked with their girlfriends and five others to coordinate the purchases by using what they called "bodies," people who physically went to the dealerships and bought the vehicles with little to no money down by submitting fraudulently inflated credit scores, forged paystubs and utility bills, prosecutors said. Credit scores were increased by adding the "bodies" as an authorized user on existing credit accounts or providing them with prepaid credit cards, court documents show.

In an effort to avoid detection, the buyers would acquire as many cars as possible in a short amount of time, visiting multiple Suffolk dealerships, Miller said.

Phone numbers and addresses submitted on the paperwork belong to "upper management" in the scheme, so communications flowed through them, prosecutors said.

"Few, if any, payments were ever made to the financing company to pay down the loan taken out on the purchased vehicles," Miller wrote in a bail application obtained by Newsday. The cars were often driven by McCall, Agard and their girlfriends, April Stokes and Danielle Gera, prosecutors said.

The arrests this week were the result of a 2½-year investigation by Suffolk law enforcement that included wire taps, video surveillance and monitoring of iCloud accounts revealing cellphone activity, prosecutors said.

The investigation revealed the members of the alleged enterprise "cleaned" the titles on the vehicles by fraudulently erasing liens that made it possible to resell the vehicles for an average of nearly $43,000, Miller said.

They submitted forged New Jersey titles to the New York Department of Motor Vehicles, requested new titles after submitting checks they knew would bounce and forged lien letters to produce the clean titles, prosecutors said.

Garage owner and codefendant Gianni DeRosa also helped the crew obtain a new title by allegedly filing a fraudulent mechanic’s lien on a vehicle.

Listings for the vehicles boasted of "clean Carfax titles," as they listed Toyota and Lexus sports cars from a Coram address on Facebook Marketplace.

Another defendant, Ossama Elamrani, of Staten Island, allegedly used cash to purchase vehicles, knowing how they were initially obtained, and resold cars to "unsuspecting victims," including bidders at a Pennsylvania vehicle auction, prosecutors said.

Twelve individuals pleaded not guilty in the scheme Wednesday with additional arraignments scheduled for the coming days. Corporations owned by McCall and Gera were also indicted in the scheme, court records show.

"We deny the allegations and are looking forward to receiving and reviewing all the evidence and discovery the DA stated they have," said McCall’s attorney, Robert Macedonio, of Islip Terrace. Macedonio is also representing McCall in a separate case in which he is alleged to have stolen a vehicle from a Huntington car dealership, court records show.

Pilewski set bail on each of the defendants at between $250,000 and $2 million cash or bonds ranging between $500,000 and $4 million.

Defense attorneys called the bail requested by prosecutors — at least a half-million dollars in each instance — excessive, arguing that without the enterprise corruption charge, the defendants were not facing bail-eligible offenses.

"Beyond the pale," said attorney Joseph Hanshe, of Sayville, who is representing James Cooper, a third sibling of McCall and Agard who prosecutors identified as a "top member of the criminal enterprise."

Other defendants named as leaders of the scheme Wednesday include Jason Disisto, of New Rochelle, and Suffolk County resident David Wilson.

Wilson’s attorney, Timothy McNulty, of Sound Beach, disagreed with prosecutors’ use of estimates to determine how much money was obtained through the scheme, saying they "embellished the numbers."

Miller said investigators have so far been able to determine that $386,500 was received for nine of the vehicles, two bought with cash and seven CarMax paid for with checks. She said using the average from those sales, prosecutors believe the total amount garnered from the scheme could be more than $5.5 million.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.