How a clerk at a 70-year-old Miami company pulled off what cops say is a $3M fraud

Miami Herald (FL)

What started with a chop shop bust in Doral took investigators to an Allapattah building with a 70-year-old auto tag agency and a clerk accused of running a $3 million car title fraud.

The clerk, 32-year-old Katherine Vera Moran, remains in Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, charged with 18 counts of title fraud and 18 counts of official misconduct.

Vera Moran’s employer, Miami’s Baumgardner Auto Tag Agency at 1375 NW 36th St, sported a sign on Friday that said it would be closed until this coming Friday for “mandatory state training.”

None of Baumgardner’s listed company officers were in when a Miami Herald reporter dropped by Friday nor have they returned a phone message left Thursday.

Vera Moran’s bond has been set at $50,000.

Investigators say she forged titles, tax paperwork or processed $3,385,000 worth of stolen cars, a list that includes a 2022 Lamborghini Urus (retail $225,000), a 2023 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera (at least $344,586, according to Kelly Blue Book) and a 2021 Mercedes-Benz G550 (approximately $129,000, according to Kelly Blue Book).

Those were the cars that Doral police say they found when they followed the pinging of a stolen car’s locator on Jan. 12 to an auto shop at 5161 NW 79th Ave. They also found two faux vehicle identification number (VIN) plates. After arresting and questioning the chop shop owner, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said, investigators followed the trail of Baumgardner and Vera Moran.

She ‘stated it was not her job to verify the documents’

Baumgartner, which registered with the state on Oct. 7, 1954, shares 1375 NW 36th St. with Checkmark Insurance. Both businesses, state records say, are run by president Alberto Garcia, vice president Martin Brogan and secretary Iris Piedra. Brogan and Garcia started Checkmark in Hialeah in 2001, then took over Baumgardner sometime between the company’s March 2021 and January 2022 state filings.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office said Vera Moran made $800 to $1,000 for each title transaction. Deliver that via cash or payment app and you could have the forged titles and tax documents for your stolen car.

“The investigation exposed Vera Moran’s frequent manipulation of VINs associated with total loss vehicles, such as transferring a 2020 WhiteJeep Gladiator, deemed a total loss due to extensive fire damage, to a salvage rebuilt title appearing in perfect condition,” the Miami-Dade SAO office said.

For her part, the arrest report said, Vera Moran “stated that it was not her job to verify the documents that she processes and that she is not a police officer. She stated that she simply generates the docs for the vehicles based on the paperwork and titles she receives and she has no way of verifying the authenticity of the documents.”

Vera Moran, the arrest report said, claimed to work only with dealerships. Police pointed out these were private individual transactions and say Vera Moran had photos of various driver’s licenses and title documents on her phone.

Under questioning, Vera Moran said she sometimes got $200 tips via Cash App from her customers. Police say she got paid an extra $8,000 to $10,000 before each title and tax document forgery on the stolen cars.

“Fraudulent title transfers not only deceive the system but inflict profound harm on victims who suffer the loss of property and insurance companies who are forced to cover theft claims. Such crimes can have a lasting and detrimental impact on our community, costing the hardworking citizens of Miami-Dade County by driving up car insurance premiums,” said State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.