Michael Gonzalez tricked Tesla into giving him five of his electric cars, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Anadolu Agency / Contributor / Getty Images
A 34-year-old man tricked Tesla into giving him five electric vehicles without paying for them, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The man, Michael Gonzalez, resold a Model 3 and two Model Xs for around $231,900 (around €221,000), prosecutors said.
Gonzalez, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison.
This is a machine translation of an article from our US colleagues at Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by a real editor. We welcome feedback at the end of the article.
A man who managed to get Tesla to give him five electric cars for free has been arrested, according to the US Department of Justice sentenced to four years in prison.
The man sold the Teslas he had stolen
34-year-old Michael Gonzalez from Vermont managed to obtain five brand-new electric cars from Tesla worth a total of over $560,000 (around €530,000), according to the Justice Department. He later resold three of the vehicles below the new price to unwitting buyers, including a used car dealer and buyers on eBay and Craigslist, for a total of about $231,900 (around 221,000 euros), prosecutors said. The vehicles included a 2018 Model 3 and four Model X EVs, court documents show.
Gonzalez became even more cunning when he couldn’t resell one of the electric cars because Tesla didn’t issue him a certificate of ownership, authorities allege. The prosecution alleges that he drove the vehicle onto a frozen lake and set it on fire. He later filed an insurance claim for the Tesla, claiming he had taken the vehicle to Shelburne Bay in Vermont to go ice fishing at night. The claim was rejected.
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This is how the man tricked Tesla
The Vermont man managed to trick Tesla’s payment system by providing him with the banking information of accounts with insufficient funds, including some accounts with less than $110 in balance, according to court documents.
The company then handed over the cars to Gonzalez before it was clear that the man’s bank accounts did not have the necessary funds to cover the entire amount. Gonzalez ordered the Teslas under various names, including the names of an ex-girlfriend and a woman with whom he had fathered a child, according to the indictment. Gonzalez also made “false representations” to the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles to obtain titles for the cars, prosecutors said.
After his fifth attempt in 2019, Tesla hired a company to seize one of the Model Xs, but Gonzalez was able to evade the men and hide the car in a storage unit, according to court documents.
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Gonzalez received this punishment
Gonzalez pleaded guilty to five counts of possessing and distributing stolen vehicles. He was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday and must pay $493,000 to Tesla and an additional $231,900 to the government, according to court documents.
The 34-year-old has faced legal problems in the past, including allegations that he lied when applying for federal firearms and aggravated assault with a weapon, according to reports MarketWatchwhich was the first to report on the Tesla case.
A spokesperson for Tesla and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont, as well as Gonzalez’s attorney, did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
However, Gonzalez’s attorney told MarketWatch that “Michael has accepted full responsibility for his actions.”
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