After banking millions of dollars and amassing a huge car collection, one Michigan man’s illegal scam has caught up with him. Cleveland.com reports that Najeeb Khan has been sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing $180 million in a check fraud scheme.
Khan’s scheme started with his ownership and operation of a payroll processing company called Interlogic Outsourcing Inc. This wasn’t a small time operation; the Justice Department says at one point the company had 6,000 clients. Beginning in 2014 however, Khan got greedy:
Khan operated a check-kiting scheme using his company’s business bank accounts to fraudulently obtain funds from various financial institutions, including KeyBank. Khan used these funds to support the growth of his payroll processing business and fund his lifestyle, which included the purchase of automobiles, aircraft, and vacation homes.
As part of his scheme, Khan wrote checks and made wire transfers between multiple accounts under his control at various banks. This type of fraud is commonly known as check-kiting, and it involves the perpetrator continually writing checks back and forth between accounts he or she controls to fraudulently inflate account balances, thus deceiving banks into honoring checks written with insufficient funds.
Khan wrote checks from IOI accounts at Lake City Bank for deposit into IOI accounts at KeyBank and then wrote checks from IOI accounts at Berkshire Bank for deposit into IOI accounts at Lake City Bank. To cover the check funds issued from Berkshire Bank, Khan wired funds from IOI accounts at KeyBank to IOI accounts at Berkshire Bank.
It paid off to the tune of $150 million, with the Justice Department saying countless businesses were defrauded. These millions helped to fund Khan’s lavish lifestyle that included properties in multiple states, planes, yachts and a massive car collection.
We’re talking about a car collection that wouldn’t look out of place as its own museum. After the Feds seized everything, the 280 vehicle collection went up for sale at RM Sotheby’s in 2020. Khan had everything from a 2016 Ford F-350 to John Deer farm equipment, vintage motorcycles like a 1959 Giulietta Super Sport, a Delorean, a Jensen Intercepter, Shelby Series 1, a Jaguar XJ220, etc. Honestly, the man had taste. It was a damn fine car collection that you can still check out here even though every single one sold.
Khan, for his crimes, won’t ever see any of those vehicles again. He was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. Speaking to the court, Khan admits that he was “blinded by greed” and says he’s sorry for what he did. “I’m humbled with deep regret and remorse to all the victims whose lives were negatively impacted by my actions and greed.”