- March 2, 2026
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A 27-year-old Tampa car dealer has been sentenced to more than five years in federal prison for obtaining fraudulent auto loans from finance companies and trying to export a stolen Rolls-Royce.
Mohamad Jihad Fakih was sentenced last week to 54 months in prison and ordered to pay $378,655 in restitution by U.S. Senior District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington.
He pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and an attempt to export a stolen motor vehicle. Both cases carried 54-month sentences that will run simultaneously.
While Fakih was sentenced Feb. 27, according to federal court records, he had been in custody since Jan. 26, when Magistrate Judge Christopher P. Tuite revoked his bond after prosecutors learned he was still buying cars — and not paying for them.
According to the plea agreement, court records and a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, here is what happened.
Between November 2024 and February 2025, Fakih and an unidentified co-conspirator, while doing business as Interstate Auto Traders in Tampa, submitted falsified loan applications to an automobile finance company in Los Angeles and a credit union in Virginia.
The loans were in the names of individuals Fakih had identified and set up as straw purchasers. (A straw purchaser is a person who buys a vehicle, or another item, for a person who would otherwise not qualify.)
According to the plea agreement, there were three straw purchasers — one in Florida and two in Georgia. (Neither the individuals nor the loan originators are identified in court records.)
Fakih would apply for loans in the straw purchasers’ names through Interstate Auto’s website and then submit forged identification documents and pay stubs to support the applications.
To make the loan applications appear legitimate, Fakih would get false vehicle titles that matched the vehicles the straw purchasers were said to be buying.
“In reality,” the Justice Department writes, “there was no vehicle for sale.”
Once the loans were approved and the dealership got the money, Fakih and the co-conspirator would split the loan proceeds between themselves and the straw purchaser.
As part of the scheme, the straw purchaser was expected to use some of the money they received to make a few initial payments. This was done so the loan would appear legitimate, according to the plea agreement.
After those few payments were made, the vehicle was reported stolen and those involved collected on the insurance.
In all, Fakih went through this process on six vehicles for about $372,000. They included a 2022 GMC Sierra, 2021 Dodge Charger and 2021 Lamborghini Urns.
On March 10, just a few months before the loan scheme started, Fakih posted in a group text chat two videos and several photographs of a 2022 Rolls-Royce Cullinan.
The Rolls-Royce had a dealer tag tied to Interstate Auto Traders.
According to the plea agreement, Fakih told the others in the chat that he got the Rolls-Royce from the person identified in court papers as Straw Purchaser 3. And in one of the videos, the vehicle is seen in front of that person’s Georgia home.
Just 13 days after the initial text was sent, the Rolls-Royce was reported stolen. A day later, Fakih sent another picture in a text. This text went to one of the members of the original text chain.
And what was the picture of? Fakih driving the Rolls-Royce Cullinan.
On seeing the picture, the plea agreement says the individual wrote back, “Sell it to me” and “I like it a lot.”
Fakih sent a third picture March 27 showing the Rolls-Royce in a warehouse and, this would turn out to be important later, a 2023 Mercedes S-Class.
A little less than a month later, Fakih and the three others in the text chain got a message from the shipping and logistics company Maersk sharing the tracking information for a container headed to Dubai.
The manifest, according to the plea agreement, showed the container was transporting a 2016 Kia Forte, a 2011 Nissan Rogue and a 2011 Nissan Armada.
But when U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized the container at the Port of Savannah April 25, 2024, it found the Rolls-Royce Cullinan and the Mercedes.
The Rolls-Royce, according to Cargurus.com, is currently selling for between $250,758 and $306,977. At the time it was seized, federal officials estimated it was worth $470,000.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection makes one other appearance in the plea agreement.
According to the document, a week after the Lamborghini Urus was financed for $91,591 on Dec. 24, 2024, Fakih discussed via text exporting the luxury sports car.
CBP reports that on Jan. 20, 2025, the car appeared on a shipping on a manifest despite the lien against the title.
While Fakih was sentenced Feb. 27, according to federal court records he had been in custody since Jan. 26 when Magistrate Judge Christopher P. Tuite revoked his bond.
This happened after the judge granted a motion from prosecutors stating on Jan.15 they had learned that after being released from bond Fakih was still committing “fraudulent conduct related to automobile sales and exports.”
Prosecutors write that a wholesale automobile dealer in Tampa Bay provided them with paperwork showing Fakih took possession of several of the dealer’s vehicles, got the title for them and then sold or exported them without paying the dealer.
“In other words,” prosecutors wrote in the motion to revoke Fakih’s bond, “the defendant stole multiple vehicles from (the) victim and then attempted to export those stolen vehicles, resulting in an estimated loss of approximately $174,250.”
It was not immediately clear if Fakih will be charged based on those allegations.
To bolster their case, prosecutors also noted that Fakih was arrested in Hillsborough County in December on a warrant for contempt of court from a contract and indebtedness civil case. According to Hillsborough court records, it involved a judgement for $678,981.
The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force investigated Fakih. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Risha Asokan.
