Exposed
Higginsville police chief Cindy Schroer heard about the large number of Miracle Cars being sold in her town, and was very suspicious. Eventually, at the end of 2000, she wrote an incident report and sent it to Missouri's attorney general. The report eventually wound up in the office of Todd Graves, the U.S. Attorney for Missouri's Western District. In turn, he turned the case over to one of his assistants, Dan Stewart. An investigation was immediately launched, headed by U.S. Postal Inspector Steve Hamilton and IRS fraud expert Gary Marshall.
Over the next two years, Hamilton and Marshall painstakingly followed the money trail. Initially thinking that the "National Finders" were the ringleaders, they contacted all three of them. Krawizcki panicked, and agreed to cooperate with the government in return for not being prosecuted. The FBI tapped her phone, monitoring her conversations with Baker and Conway, who continued to sell cars even after being warned that the scheme may have been illegal. Eventually, Hamilton and Marshall discovered that Gomez, Nichols, Baker and Conway had fleeced their customers of $21.1 million, $8.6 million of which went toward refunds.
On May 8, 2002, a Kansas City grand jury indicted Gomez, Nichols and Baker on 23 counts each for interstate fraud and money laundering. Gomez was arrested on June 10, 2002 at a casino owned by Flynt. Nichols surrendered to authorities on July 20 at his attorney's office. Baker and Conway later self-surrendered to the FBI, and Conway was later added to the indictment.
Read more about this topic: Miracle Cars Scam
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