Two 25-year-old Chinese nationals are facing federal charges after prosecutors say they ran a scheme to steal Teslas using stolen identities this past spring and summer.
Jialiang Huang, a student at Virginia Tech, and Yaoxu Zhou are accused of wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy and aggravated identity theft, according to federal court records.
According to the records, the two men allegedly bought and leased numerous Teslas using stolen identifications.
Prosecutors say they then removed the GPS systems from the cars and had them re-titled in Montana using fraudulent documents.
It states removing the GPS systems made it difficult for authorities to locate the cars.
Court records outline two allegations of theft — one in Henrico and another in Norfolk.
Prosecutors allege that on May 16, Huang and Zhou went to a Tesla dealership in Norfolk and used the stolen identification of a man to lease a Cybertruck, making a down payment of more than $11,000.
It states Tesla never received any additional payments.
The victim discovered an application for a car loan on his credit report and contacted authorities.
Prosecutors say the suspects were also working with another suspect located in China and another man who is currently in a California jail on related charges.
Legal analyst Sonny Stallings explained the allegations.
"It's sophisticated crime. Somebody had to sit down and work on this and know how to do certain things, know what they needed when they went to lease that car. That's key. They just didn't walk into the leasing agent and say, 'Hey, I want to lease that car. What do I need?' They knew what they needed. They needed identification. They needed insurance information," Stallings said.
Stallings said the case is a good reminder to check your credit and make sure it's protected.
"The people are out there, they get you information, you got good credit, you could one day find out you bought a car." Stallings said.
Arrest warrants have been issued for both men. Attempts to reach them were unsuccessful.
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