Two brothers from Anne Arundel County, Maryland, have found themselves on the wrong side of the law for running an "odometer rollback scheme" that scammed car buyers out of about $1.2 million. According to WMAR2 News, the men, Kamal Khalid, 44, and Fnu Shahrukh, 31, were convicted of snatching up high-mileage vehicles at auto auctions, only to manipulate their odometers to show fewer miles, thus misleading buyers about the cars' actual wear and tear.
Khalid was sentenced to a three-year prison term, to be followed by another three years of supervised release. Shahrukh, on the other hand, was given an 18-month sentence. Jonathan Morrison from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration pointed out that the average rollback by the brothers was 124,000 miles per vehicle, a significant number that could massively overinflate the sale price. "Buyers were purchasing vehicles without knowing that critical components like brakes, belts, and fluids were long past their service dates," Morrison said in a statement obtained by WMAR2 News.
The U.S. Attorney's office laid out how the siblings operated between 2016 and 2019, buying high-mileage cars and turning back odometers before acquiring new titles that showcased the fraudulent readings. The cars were then sold at auctions or directly to unsuspecting consumers, often for inflated prices due to the falsely low mileage. Kelly Hayes, the U.S. Attorney, highlighted in comments reported by CBS News Baltimore, that the victims of the scam were just people trying to buy a dependable used car and instead "were deceived into purchasing vehicles that were well past their prime."
In addition to the prison sentences and the mandate to supervise to keenly ensure they don't fall back into criminal ways, the Khalid brothers were also ordered to cough up roughly $1.2 million in restitution to the victims they duped. For those concerned about odometer tampering, a hotline at 888-327-4236 is available for reporting, with further information about odometer fraud accessible online.
