Bulgarians Accused Of Car, ATM Thefts

After a two-year investigation, federal authorities have charged that a Bulgarian organized crime group defrauded Las Vegas and Phoenix car dealers out of $1.6 million and stole at least $700,000 from Las Vegas-area bank ATMs.

Eleven people were charged in three different indictments in federal court in Las Vegas late last month, according to a Las Vegas Review-Journal report.

At a hearing last week, federal authorities accused one of the ring's leaders, 58-year-old Dimitar Dimitrov, of being an associate of Bulgarian organized crime figures.

One of the indictments charges that the ring would send in “straw buyers” to luxury car and other car dealerships, according to the Review-Journal report. The buyers claimed to be employed by phony companies at lucrative salaries to obtain financing for the vehicle. The buyers would then take advantage of the time delay that occurs when someone gets approved for a loan and the loan is posted to the buyer's credit report, the indictment says. The buyers were able to get multiple car loans at different dealers within a short period of time without the finance companies knowing about the other loans.

At least 12 car dealers in Nevada and the Phoenix area were swindled out of vehicles, which wound up in New York, Illinois, California and Georgia, the indictment alleges. Authorities estimated that dealers lost a combined $1.6 million in the spring of 2008.

In a separate indictment, authorities charged Dimitrov and other co-defendants with aggravated identity theft in a scheme where they allegedly withdrew at least $700,000 from Las Vegas area ATMs with the help of a scanning device or a small camera secretly installed at an ATM.

The device and camera allowed the defendants to get access to bank account numbers and PIN numbers from bank customers, the indictment charges. The defendants then encoded that customer information onto blank plastic cards with magnetic strips, allowing the defendants to withdraw the case from the ATMs. Law enforcement officials have seen a huge rise in such “skimming” activities in recent years, often by Eastern European crime groups.