PROVIDENCE – A Providence man pleaded guilty in federal court for his role in a scheme to defraud car dealerships in Rhode Island and New Hampshire, including a 2022 plot to take possession of a Land Rover worth more than $95,000, prosecutors said on Sunday.
Adalberto Mauricio Romero, 28, admitted in US District Court in Providence on Thursday that he planned to defraud a dealership in New Hampshire out of the vehicle valued at $95,713 in May 2022, according to the Rhode Island US Attorney’s Office.
“Delivery of the vehicle to Romero was halted when he presented a fraudulent driver’s license containing information that was used as part of an online application to secure financing through a dealership financing program,” prosecutors said in a statement.
Romero is scheduled to be sentenced on July 24 for a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, officials said.
Romero was the last of three men to plead guilty in the conspiracy, which prosecutors alleged “used stolen personal identifications of unsuspecting individuals to gain financing for the purchase of Land Rovers” in the two states.
Dennis Odoom, 27, of Johnston, R.I., described by prosecutors as the leader of the fraud scheme, admitted he provided a “co-conspirator with a fraudulent ID and that he drove that person to a dealership in New Hampshire to pick up a Land Rover valued at $96,256 purchased with fraudulently obtained credit,” officials have previously said.
“The person accompanying him was expecting to be paid $2,000 by Odoom,” prosecutors said. “Additionally, court documents allege that fraudulently obtained financing was used by co-conspirators to purchase a Land Rover from a Rhode Island dealership. The final sales price for the vehicle and financing was $111,183.”
Odoom was sentenced by a federal judge last month to two-and-a-half years in federal prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $1,000, with restitution to be determined at a later date.
Roy Sweets, 27, of Pawtucket, R.I., also pleaded guilty last month to using a fraudulent New Hampshire driver’s license and other false information to buy a $95,000 Range Rover Sport HST in May 2022, prosecutors said. Sweets has not yet received a sentence, court records show.
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