Man arrested for allegedly producing dozens of fake titles for stolen luxury cars in Pennsylvania, AG says

Pennsylvania State Police have arrested a man accused of issuing dozens of fraudulent titles for stolen luxury cars. 

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday's office called the title-washing scheme "Operation Hot Wheels."

Police on Friday arrested the man who they say was at the center of this crime ring — the one who issued 65 fraudulent titles to cars that had been stolen.

Title washing refers to a scheme in which criminals steal a car and then get a new, falsified title so they can sell the vehicle without getting caught. 

Operation Hot Wheels was based in Philadelphia and Bucks County.

Over the course of a year, state police linked dozens of stolen vehicles — all luxury cars, including a Ferrari, BMWs and Cadillacs — to the same title company: Richardson Family Enterprises, LLC.

Now, Adam Richardson, an authorized tag agent for PennDOT who was behind the falsified titles, has been arrested.

"He abused his authority to title 65 stolen vehicles, and provided fraudulent documentation to 49 different individuals," Sunday said. "The stolen vehicles connected to this scheme have an estimated total value of more than $3.8 million." 

In some cases, the vehicles were sold on Facebook Marketplace to unsuspecting buyers. Other buyers were looking for stolen vehicles. Almost 40 of the vehicles have been recovered, according to the attorney general's office.

Other times, buyers were looking for stolen vehicles that had been title washed.

Richardson, 40, is charged with multiple felonies including corrupt organizations, title washing, forgery and related offenses. Investigators say Richardson was known as the "tag guy" people could go to for title washing stolen cars. He received a fee for washing the titles.

Richardson was arraigned and denied bail.

This is the only arrest so far, but the attorney general says the investigation is ongoing.