Leader of Conspiracy to Fraudulently Register Vehicles in Missouri Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Tuesday sentenced a man to five years in prison for bribing employees of Missouri motor vehicle license offices to fraudulently register motor vehicles.

Judge Schelp also ordered Gary Wilds, 48, to pay restitution of $335,218, including $319,778 to the state of Missouri.

Wilds bribed employees of motor vehicle license offices to falsely represent to the Missouri Department of Revenue that vehicles had passed emissions and safety inspections, that owners had paid their property taxes and had proof of insurance or other evidence of financial responsibility. Wilds also bribed employees into submitting forged documents claiming that vehicle owners were eligible for sales tax exemptions, thus reducing tax assessments from thousands of dollars per vehicle to as little as $11.

Wilds recruited Michelle Boyer and Megan Leone to aid his conspiracy. When Leone was promoted to manager, she told Ashlyn Graeff, who was her subordinate and who began working at the office in 2018, to fraudulently complete vehicle registration documents on behalf of Wilds. Wilds paid his recruits up to $100 for each transaction. Graeff initially conducted one or two fraudulent registrations per week for Wilds but that eventually grew to as many as 10 per day.

Some of the customers of Wilds’ business, Pinnacle Concierge, knew that Wilds was going to fraudulently register their vehicles because their vehicles could not pass emissions tests, they had outstanding child support orders or they had been barred from registering vehicles by another state agency. Customers who weren’t aware have suffered financial losses because Wilds only submitted part of their fees to the state and the fraudulent registrations were subsequently revoked. Even though these customers paid Wilds for their registrations, they are unable to properly register their vehicles without submitting the unpaid taxes and paying taxes and penalties to the state.

In one example in Wilds’ plea agreement, Wilds and Graef fraudulently registered a 2022 Dodge Ram for a customer on Sept. 13, 2022. Wilds told his customer that $1,350 would satisfy the fees and taxes due, but Wilds only sent $14.50 to the Missouri Department of Revenue. Wilds and Graeff avoided paying sales taxes by submitting a fraudulent form that falsely claimed that the vehicle weighed 24,000 pounds and was being leased to an interstate carrier registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Gary Wilds pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, 22 counts of wire fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft and six counts of making a false statement. Graeff, now 40, pleaded guilty to three counts of making a false statement. Leone, 42, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and one count of making a false statement. Boyer, 53, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Boyer was sentenced on September 18 to five years of probation and ordered to pay restitution of $206,847. Graeff was sentenced on July 17, 2024, to four years of probation and ordered to pay $84,554 in restitution. Leone is scheduled to be sentenced on October 8.

The case was investigated by the Missouri Department of Revenue and the FBI.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Berry is prosecuting the case.