A Tucson man, Andrew May, was sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment after had previously pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and bank fraud.
The evidence established that May, age 46, through his shell companies, engaged in an extensive auto-loan fraud scheme. As part of the scheme, May and his co-conspirators fraudulently represented to the lenders that they were engaged in the legitimate purchase and sale of vehicles in order to obtain financing from numerous financial institutions. The co-conspirators further fraudulently represented that the lenders would receive a lien on the vehicles as collateral for the loans. However, no legitimate vehicle sales occurred. The lenders funded approximately $1.2 million dollars traced to numerous bank accounts controlled by May.
In addition to personally using over $500,000, May distributed portions of the fraudulent proceeds to the co-conspirators. Most of the fraudulent loans went into default, resulting in significant losses to the lenders. As part of the sentence, the court ordered that May forfeit a vehicle and trailer that he obtained using the loan fraud proceeds.
The court also scheduled a restitution hearing for Nov. 19, 2018.