For Immediate Release:
For additional information please contact Tory Davis, Director of Communications & Community Relations at 813-635-5264
Hillsborough car salesman accused of running ‘title washing scheme’
Tampa, FL — January 30, 2025
The Brief
-
- A Hillsborough County car salesman made an appearance in court after he was accused of running a “title washing’ scheme.
- He’s facing multiple charges, including selling or possessing a vehicle with altered numbers, forged motor vehicle title and grand theft of a motor vehicle.
- His bond was set at $85,000 for all 12 charges during his court appearance.
What is title washing?
Dig deeper:
“What makes [title washing] problematic is that you’re taking the title of a vehicle, and you’re essentially rewriting it,” auto industry expert Michael Caudill said. “So scammers, what they will do is, they’ll take a vehicle that has been in an accident, and they will wipe clean that title, then re-register that vehicle. And that essentially, when you run it through your Department of Motor Vehicles, it will show that there’s been no accidents on it.”
Court documents accuse Njie of getting a fake title for a Range Rover that was reported stolen out of Lake City back in 2022. According to the search warrant by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Auto Theft Unit, “the vehicle was therefore confirmed to be re-VINed and fraudulently titled in the State of Florida.”
“If you look in most new cars today inside the windshield, right on the driver’s side, the VIN number is listed right there,” Caudill said of a vehicle’s identification number (VIN). “They’ll pop that VIN number off and put a different VIN number on of a similar make and model.”
According to the search warrant, investigators found “various photographs of stolen vehicles, fraudulent vehicle Certificate of Titles, fraudulent driver’s licenses, fraudulent social security cards, (and) fraudulent VIN stickers.”
“The number one way that you’re going to title wash a vehicle is that you’re going to usually move it from state to state,” Caudill said.
Hillsborough salesman’s scheme
The backstory:
In March 2024, Njie and his associates are accused of bringing a South Carolina title to the Plant City Tax Collector’s Office in an attempt to re-title a Mercedes-Benz that had a lien on it. According to the criminal report affidavit, Njie is accused of financing the Mercedes-Benz under a fake name and then having his associate re-title the vehicle in Florida with a fake South Carolina title.
“If successful, Ahmed Njie would have effectively “title-washed” the vehicle, thus clearing the lien, which exceeded $50,000 in payments still owed,” the criminal report affidavit explained.
“Title security is complex,” Hillsborough County Chief Deputy Tax Collector Jennifer Castro said. “Kind of like with any other official document: If there’s criminals and bad actors, and they want to falsify a record to steal something, they’re definitely going to try to do it.”
Plant City tax collector employees reached out to South Carolina officials, who told them the title was fake, court records show.
“They are trained extensively on what to look for on documents and even behaviors of people who enter the office,” Castro said.
What’s next:
On Thursday, Njie’s defense attorneys asked the judge for a reasonable bond, explaining that their client “is employed as a car salesman and a business owner” with a wife and children, who live in the area.
Bond was ultimately set at $85,000 for all 12 charges.
What we don’t know:
Court documents don’t explain what Njie was doing with these re-titled vehicles. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said they would release more details at a later date.
Read the full article here.