Feds Charge 11 People for Selling Over 100,000 Fake Temp Tags

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Welcome once again to Leato's Law.

[00:00:02]Here's Steve Leato.

[00:00:03]>> It's becoming quite expensive to keep a car on the road these days. And as those prices climb, sometimes people will try to get workarounds. Uh and sometimes what they do is not legal. But it's something that you expect to see on the rise when the price of keeping a car on the road goes up. So Edward sent me not.

[00:00:19]Steve, check out the story from USA Today. 11 charged in multi-million dollar fake dealership and temp tag fraud case. US attorneys of the Southern District of New York and the FBI assistant director in charge announced the arrests of 11 defendants in connection with an alleged multi-million dollar scheme involving fraudulently obtained temporary license plates used to evade tolls, parking tickets, and traffic violations. And I suspect a lot of them are also being used simply to put a car on the road. So, the defendants are charged in a 5-count indictment includes wire fraud and access device fraud. All 11 were arrested in May. Nine of the defendants are expected to appear in White Plains federal court. Two others are scheduled for initial appearances in federal courts in North Carolina and Florida.

[00:01:06]According to the indictment filed May 13th, the defendants allegedly created Sham Auto dealerships to generate more than 100,000 fraudulent temporary tags which were then sold for $50 to $250 a piece. Now, what I don't understand is it says they created sham auto dealerships. Did they actually go to the trouble of working with a state to create a dealership or did they just say they had one? But the reason I'm asking is that many states like Michigan, you can't just call up the state and go, "Hey, I want to open a car dealership."

[00:01:37]And then they send you a license. That's that's not how it works. It's not that easy. Authorities said the tags were used to avoid paying tolls, parking fines, and other vehicle related fees across New York City and New York State.

[00:01:49]Officials estimate the scheme resulted in about $15 million in unpaid tolls and violations, including 11.8 million in New York City parking and traffic tickets and 3.1 million in unpaid easy pass tolls. Investigators also said the fraudulent tags were linked to thousands of complaints and at least 1,200 incidents reported to the NYPD, including six homicides. Someone calls the police and goes, "Yeah, I saw the car that did it. It had a temp tag on it. So for over 5 years, the defendants allegedly conspired to use fraudulently obtain temporary license plates or temp tags to avoid fees, tolls, and parking traffic tickets. Their schemes deprived New York State and New York City of millions of dollars in revenue. And again, like I said, many of these vehicles would not be on the road except that they've got this temp tag on them.

[00:02:39]Uh they said that investigators uncovered extensive misuse of temporary registrations and said law enforcement will continue targeting fraud schemes affecting public systems. The following defendants are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud, and one count of access device fraud. So, for instance, there's a guy from Englewood, New Jersey, who's 62 years old. A 61y old from Tene. Uh, a 30-year-old from Manhattan. A 52year-old from Miami. And the list just goes on and on and on. Quite an enterprise. Each wire fraud count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

[00:03:24]Conspiracy to commit access device fraud carries a maximum sentence of 5 years.

[00:03:28]and access device fraud carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Officials praised investigators from FBI, New York field office, Westchester County Resident Agency, NYPD, New York State Police, New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, Special Investigations Unit, and the Georgia Department of Revenue, Office of Special Investigations. Case is being prosecuted by the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York White Plains Division. And there's a whole bunch of people handling the case. And I can tell you, I've seen all kinds of stories. I've even done videos on them where people look at a temporary tag and it's a piece of paper. In some states, it's just a piece of paper that's been printed in what appears to be a laser printer, meaning that it's not that hard to replicate. And as you know, if you're driving down the road and you got a big old plate on your car, it can be read from a good distance and somebody can then type it into a system or a scanner can read it or something and they can determine whether or not that's a correct plate. Is it current? Is it on the right vehicle? And so on. However, somebody drives by and they got a piece of white paper in their window and it's taped to a window in such a way that it's at an angle and you can't really read it.

[00:04:37]Uh how do you know it's real? Do do you know if it's real? And I mean I remember working at the gas station years ago back when we'd pump your gas for you uh in Michigan. That goes quite a ways back before there were any self-s serves. And I remember we were required to write down the license plate of anybody used a credit card in the credit card imprinter thing. So you got that kachchunk thing, you know, kachchunk kachunk. I I've actually got one. A viewer sent one in a while back. I just don't think it's on the set right now, but you you'd write down how much money the the charge was for, how many gallons it was, anything else, and then you'd write down what state the plate was from, and then the plate number. And I remember people pulling in brand new cars with a temporary plate on it and and the you're like, "What?" And you'd write temp and you'd sometimes write down a little bit else in there, but but generally speaking, it's new car. It's going to have a temp tag. And that was not that not that uncommon that you'd see that.

[00:05:32]But I've heard that in some states in particular where it's become very very expensive to keep a car on the road where you might get just hit with tolls for driving around and uh everything else. Uh it's difficult to find a legal parking space if you know what I mean.

[00:05:51]Um you put a temp tag on your car and somehow those fines and tolls and whatever never never find their way to you. They never find their way to you.

[00:05:59]So, as you can imagine, the uh people in the government aren't going to stand idly by and let that happen. They're going to try to track it down and and and try to put a stop to it. But I remember seeing a story, I think it was out of Texas, where people were advertising that you could buy a temp tag off of, you know, Craigslist or or Facebook Marketplace. And you know, I think most people would recognize that somebody who's advertising I can get you a temp tag for, you know, 50 bucks on Craigslist probably isn't an authorized dealer nor a branch of the Secretary of State's office or the DMV or whatever they call it in your state. Um, so there were a lot of people who were doing that. And and like I said, and again, I'm not excusing it. I'm simply pointing out that in states where it's become more expensive to drive, this has become more common because if you think about the process, you need a car to get to and from someplace. First step, you got to buy a car. Okay, you bought a car.

[00:07:01]Now, you got to put insurance on it. And these things have to happen in this order. You buy the car, you get the insurance, now you got to register the car and get a plate for it. A lot of people look at their own situation and go, "Okay, I'm desperate. I got to get a car." And they buy the car.

[00:07:19]Okay, now I got to get insurance.

[00:07:22]They pay for the insurance. Now you got to pay for plates. And as the stuff starts tacking on and getting added up, of course, doing it in that order means that if you run out of money somewhere along the line, the plates's the last thing you buy or you get the plate, but your insurance lapses. And I've mentioned before, I love watching the videos on YouTube of people getting pulled over at the side of the road because it can often turn into a spectacle depending on how people behave, what they've been pulled over for. Also, high-speed chases, high-speed chases can be quite entertaining, although they can be scary, too.

[00:07:56]And I've seen someone get pulled over and they go, "Why am I being pulled over?" And the police officer says, "Your plates expired or you've got no insurance or this is the wrong plate in the car." or that temp tag you have appears to be incorrect. And these things do happen. And so I've spoken to people. I actually know somebody who moved to another state and had the plate on his car from his original home state and it expired and he kind of forgot about it because the notices to reinstate that plate or to, you know, re-up that plate were being sent to his old address back in his home state. And he kind of forgot about it. and he said he drove, I believe, for over a year on an expired outofstate plate. But that was, of course, back in the old days.

[00:08:42]I'm talking about the 1980s. And I don't think that back then all of these different states had the information and the ability to communicate with each other about is this plate from your state good or should I should I, you know, pull this guy over or not. And so, in the old days, you get away with it more than you could now. But it is a it is a very serious thing. So, as an attorney, um, I would advise you not to put the fake plate on your car, temp tag, or otherwise. And likewise, if you thought to yourself, "What a great idea printing temp tags on my laser printer, uh, cost to me, one piece of paper." But what can I sell it for? Again, don't do that either. Don't.

[00:09:23]It's not a good idea, as noted as to what's happening to these people. So, 11 have been charged in a multi-million dollar fake dealership temp tag fraud case. Edward sent that. USA Today Network ran it and I'll try to follow that and find out what happens to all those people. Questions or comments, put them below. Let's talk to you later.

[00:09:41]Bye-bye.

[00:09:42]>> Thank you for watching Leato's Law.

[00:09:44]Always be a first rate version of yourself instead of a second rate version of somebody else.