Sacramento trio indicted, tied to $545 million nationwide catalytic converter theft ring
Scores of law enforcement agencies busted a nationwide catalytic converter theft ring that feds say resulted in illicit gains of more than $500 million, with a trio of Sacramento-based defendants allegedly playing a key role in one leg of the operation, prosecutors announced this week.
Local, state and federal officers “executed a nationwide, coordinated takedown” Wednesday, arresting or charging 21 suspects across five states in connection with the scheme, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
A pair of federal grand jury indictments filed last month that detail the alleged scheme were unsealed Wednesday: one in federal court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, and the other in the Eastern District of California.
Three Sacramento residents were charged in the latter case, a 40-count indictment against nine total defendants who face an array of conspiracy charges, most of them related to money laundering and transport of stolen goods.
Tou Sue Vang, 31; Andrew Vang, 27; and Monica Moua, 51, allegedly operated an unlicensed business from their home residence in Sacramento, buying stolen catalytic converters from Sacramento-based thieves and shipping them to a New Jersey-based company called DG Auto Parts LLC, according to court documents.
The six other defendants indicted in the California court case, all New Jersey residents, are allegedly tied to DG Auto Parts.
Interstate theft ring tied to Sacramento
The Sacramento trio of defendants ultimately sold more than $38 million of stolen catalytic converters to DG Auto Parts in less than two years, court documents say — $2 million from October 2019 to February 2020, and the remaining $36 million from February 2020 through May 2021.
DG Auto Parts, in turn, extracted precious metal powders from the vehicle parts’ cores to sell them to a metal refinery, according to court documents.
Defendants linked to DG Auto Parts are also charged in the federal case out of Oklahoma, tied to a ring based largely in the Tulsa area, which the indictment alleges began around May 2020.
Between the two indictments, prosecutors say DG Auto Parts sold metal powders to the refinery for more than $545 million. One defendant in the Oklahoma case personally received more than $45 million in wired funds from DG Auto, according to court filings.
Tou Sue Vang, Andrew Vang and Moua operated their business, called Vang Auto, from a home on Meadowgate Drive in Sacramento’s Parkway neighborhood, according to the indictment.
The Vangs obtained a California business license in May 2019 for Vang Auto; the license was suspended by the state’s Franchise Tax Board in November 2020, but the three defendants allegedly continued to operate despite the suspension, court documents say.
The Vangs would buy catalytic converters knowing they were stolen, then store them in “various locations, including storage facilities, until they were ready to be shipped to DG Auto in New Jersey,” according to court documents.
The indictment lays out several of the transactions. Tou Sue Vang in September 2020 allegedly shipped about 300 stolen Toyota Prius catalytic converters from California to New Jersey. Eight days later, associates of DG Auto Parts wired $400,000 to Vang Auto’s bank account, court papers say.
Two other sales, both in April 2021, resulted in payments of $570,000 and $405,500 being wired to Vang Auto, according to the indictment.
On several occasions later in 2021, the three Sacramento defendants bought purportedly stolen catalytic converters from a confidential informant, whose activities were being monitored. A second informant based in New Jersey also monitored activity by DG Auto Parts, according to the documents.
Andrew Vang and Moua were each arrested by agents with the FBI’s Sacramento field office and booked Wednesday evening into the Sacramento County Main Jail downtown, booking records show. Tou Sue Vang has been in custody at the jail since mid-August on a warrant arrest by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office. All three are ineligible for bail.
Feds seek hundreds of millions in forfeitures
The federal grand jury indictment further charges that Tou Sue Vang, who faces an additional charge of concealment of money laundering, used the profits from the theft ring to purchase a $65,000 pickup truck, two jet skis and a trailer worth $42,000, and a $1.2 million home in Rio Linda.
Across all 21 defendants, feds are seeking the forfeiture of more than $545 million worth of cash and assets in connection with the two cases.
“This national network of criminals hurt victims across the country,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a prepared statement. “They made hundreds of millions of dollars in the process — on the backs of thousands of innocent car owners.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Veronica Alegría, of U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert’s Eastern District of California office, is prosecuting the California case along with Justice Department trial attorney Danbee Kim.
The Sacramento offices of the FBI and Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation division are leading the investigation in the California case.
More than 70 law enforcement agencies assisted in the investigation between the California and Oklahoma cases, according to the Justice Department, including the Sacramento Police Department, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, Auburn Police Department and Davis Police Department.
What are catalytic converters? Why are they valuable?
A catalytic converter is an exhaust device that converts pollutants from a vehicle’s engine into less-toxic gasses. They are located externally, on the underside of vehicles.
Thieves target catalytic converters because they are made from precious metals, most notably platinum, palladium and rhodium.
Per the California indictment, “the theft of catalytic converters has become increasingly popular because of their value, relative ease to steal, and their lack of identifying markings.”
Certain vehicles, most notably the Toyota Prius as well as others such as Ford F-series pickup trucks, are frequently targeted by catalytic converter thieves. Toyota Prius catalytic converters contain higher concentrations of precious metals than most other vehicles, authorities say, and the device can be easy to access on some pickup trucks.
Because of global supply shortages, the Oklahoma indictment explains, demand for precious metals has increased in recent years, driving up their value.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom in September signed legislation that would more tightly regulate the sale of catalytic converters.
This story was originally published November 3, 2022 at 10:20 AM.
