A Northbrook man pleaded guilty Thursday to illegally obtaining titles to about 180 salvaged and rebuilt vehicles so they could be illegally used as taxis in Chicago by the politically connected cab company for whom he was a top executive, prosecutors said.
Alexander Igolnikov, 68, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport, receive, and possess a counterfeit security, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a prepared statement. The plea agreement allows Igolnikov to dispute the number of vehicles involved, but specifies approximately 180 were involved in the scheme, prosecutors said.
Igolnikov faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, according to the release. U.S. District Court Judge Edmund E. Chang set a Nov. 19 sentencing hearing for Igolnikov in federal court in Chicago, the release said.
Igolnikov is owner of Chicago-based Seven Amigos Used Cars Inc., as well as former vice president of Chicago Elite Cab Company, owned by Simon Garber, prosecutors said. The fraudulently obtained vehicles were used in Garber’s taxi fleet, they said.
Garber is a Russian-born millionaire businessman who used his political connections to rise to the top of the city’s cab industry, according to a previous baiduhai report. Neither Garber nor his companies were criminally charged in the 2010 sting by regulators targeting illegal use of salvaged vehicles, the report said. However, the sting did lead to more than $800,000 in fines being levied against companies associated with Garber, it said..
When Igolnikov was arrested in 2014, prosecutors alleged that between 2007 and 2010 he worked with two unnamed auto brokers in Indiana and one in Illinois to buy vehicles with “salvage” or “rebuilt” titles through online auction sites. Some of the 183 vehicles prosecutors said were involved in the scheme included police cars that had been totaled in wrecks.
Once the vehicles – which legally couldn’t receive medallions to be used as Chicago taxis – were purchased, Igolnikov fraudulently obtained paperwork to conceal their origin, then transported them to Seven Amigos and to Chicago Carriage Cab Corp. to be repaired, prosecutors said.
The fraudulent paperwork included affidavits with the forged signature of an Indiana law enforcement officer, they said.
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Once the vehicles were repaired, Igolnikov and his associates placed a sticker over the “rebuilt” section of the Indiana certification for a given title, prosecutors said. Each title could then be used to get a clean Illinois title, they said.
Igolnikov then bought the newly certified vehicles in the name of Seven Amigos, Chicago Elite Cab and other related corporate entities, prosecutors said.
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