A federal grand jury in Las Vegas has indicted a man accused of running an elaborate scheme that used fake vintage car listings, shell corporations and a counterfeit foreign passport to steal money from buyers scattered across six states. Jose Carlos Dalli Castro faces 20 federal counts including wire fraud, money laundering, and document fraud tied to an alleged scam that prosecutors say never intended to deliver a single one of the vehicles it advertised.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Dalli Castro is a Mexican national illegally present in the United States who was indicted by the federal grand jury on Wednesday. Prosecutors say he advertised vehicles for sale online that either did not exist or that he did not own, then directed buyers to wire funds into accounts held under the names of shell corporations he had set up to appear legitimate, as reported by KSNV. Investigators claim he then drained those accounts quickly and absconded with the money before buyers realized the cars did not exist.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah described the indictment as the dismantling of an organized car theft ring of swindlers that specifically targeted vintage vehicles for illicit profit, according to the Department of Justice announcement. The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations Las Vegas through the Homeland Security Task Force, the department said.
Five Aliases and a Counterfeit Passport
Court documents cited by the Department of Justice allege Dalli Castro operated under at least five distinct aliases: Julio Castro Lopez, Mario Mejia Rojas, Alberto Silva Valdez, Mike Boris Oganov, and Amer Daoud Panou. Investigators say he allegedly used a counterfeit Spanish passport to open a personal checking account, intending to launder money through that account as part of the broader scheme.
The victims identified in the case were located in Pennsylvania, California, Louisiana, Ohio, New York, and Massachusetts, per the KSNV report. The indictment charges Dalli Castro with seven counts of wire fraud, nine counts of money laundering, three counts of fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents, and one count of false use of a passport.
Legal Exposure and Scheduled Arraignment
The station's report notes Dalli Castro faces a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted. Federal law spells out steeper theoretical exposure for the underlying statutes: a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1343 for wire fraud carries a maximum of up to 20 years in federal prison and fines up to $250,000 per count, while a money laundering conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1956 carries a maximum of up to 20 years and fines up to $500,000 or twice the value of the laundered property. Dalli Castro has an arraignment scheduled for later this month, according to the same account.
Public federal court records reviewed by PacerMonitor show Dalli Castro had court appearances before federal magistrate judges in both California and Nevada as early as May, months before the grand jury returned the 20-count indictment this week.
Part of a Growing National Scam Trend
The case fits into a broader pattern federal regulators have been tracking for years. Data from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that non-delivery scams involving high-value online goods such as automobiles have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses nationwide, according to TrustMatch. Separate Federal Trade Commission data indicated online auto purchase and deposit scam losses exceeded $100 million nationwide as fraudulent vehicle listings surged on peer-to-peer sales platforms.
Federal wire fraud prosecutions have also climbed to record levels in recent years, with data analyzed by TRAC at Syracuse University showing more than 1,000 such prosecutions annually for three consecutive years. Hoodline previously covered a stolen car scam tied to social media marketplace listings, part of the same nationwide pattern of online vehicle fraud.
It remains unclear whether federal authorities will identify additional victims or co-conspirators in what Chattah described as an organized car theft and swindling ring. No further details on that question have been released.
