San Jose men plead guilty in scheme to defraud used-car buyers on Craigslist

Two San Jose men pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a conspiracy charge after authorities said they defrauded used-car buyers by rolling back vehicle odometers before selling the cars on Craigslist.

Ramil Heydarov, 31, and Orkhan Aliyev, 32, each pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of California. A third defendant in the scheme, Seymur Khalilov, 32, also of San Jose, pleaded guilty on October 12.

According to the plea agreements, from at least October 2017 through December 2020, the men bought vehicles with high mileages, rolled back back the odometers and falsified information to make it so the cars appeared newer. The men also changed titles and registrations to inflate the sales value of the cars and decrease the mileage readings, officials said.

They then posted advertisements on Craigslist and used falsified driver’s licenses to pretend they were the previous owners of the cars when selling them. The men sold at least 78 cars with falsified odometer readers, resulting in a loss greater than $550,000 to the victims who bought the cars, authorities said.

The three men were charged on May 3 with one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. As a part of the plea agreement, they agreed to pay restitution to the victims as part of their plea agreements; Khalilov agreed to pay between $360,000 and $534,072, Heydarov agreed to pay $379,235 and Aliyev agreed to pay $196,578 in restitution.

The men are scheduled to be sentenced on February 4. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Supervised release could be ordered after a prison term, officials said.