A family-run catalytic converter ring in Sacramento nets $38 million. Mom and two sons pleaded guilty
But the lucrative family enterprise was illegal and involved buying stolen catalytic converters in a scheme that made more than $38 million for the family, according to authorities.
On Tuesday, Tou Sue Vang, 33, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in the theft ring, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office in the Eastern District of California.
In 2023, Vang, along with his brother and mother, pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport stolen catalytic converters bought from local thieves and selling them to a New Jersey buyer for more than $38 million, officials said. Vang also pleaded guilty to 39 additional money-laundering charges. Vang's brother and mother are awaiting sentencing.
Catalytic converter theft has become common across the U.S. because the car part is easy to steal, includes no identifying markings and is very valuable. Catalytic converters contain precious metals that make some of them worth more than $1,000 each on the black market.
At least one man in Inglewood was shot and killed trying to stop a catalytic converter theft.
Read more: Inglewood police seek suspects in death of man who tried to stop catalytic converter theft
Vang and his family operated the illegal enterprise from private residences and storage units and didn't have a valid business license or a scrapyard, officials said. Vang shipped to DG Auto in New Jersey more than 1,000 pounds in goods.
DG Auto then sold the converters and the precious metals to a metal refinery for more than $600 million, according to the indictments.
The case also includes 12 defendants from New Jersey, including brothers Navin Khanna and Tinu Khanna, who ran DG Auto and bought the stolen catalytic converters from California, authorities said.
Vang used some of the money from the business to buy a five-acre, $1.235-million home in Rio Linda, another home in Sacramento, as well as more than a dozen cars and personal watercraft, authorities said. Vang forfeited more than $150,000 in cash as part of his sentence, plus 13 cars, four watercraft, jewelry, real estate and other property.
"This defendant led a network of criminals that hurt thousands of innocent car owners," said Acting U.S. Atty. Michele Beckwith in the news release. "This case represents the kind of far-reaching investigation that federal, state, and local law enforcement partners can do when working together."
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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