On September 8, 2022, Todd Dawkins (39) of Prescott was arrested and booked on numerous Felony and Misdemeanor charges for his illegal business of purchasing, selling, and acquisition of several million dollars in revenue from the sale of stolen catalytic converters within the State of Arizona.
Since February 2022, Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office along with Department of Public Safety’s Vehicle Task Force, and Prescott Valley Police Department have been working together to investigate more than 60 police reports in Yavapai County involving the theft of over 100 catalytic converters stolen from vehicles.
Operating as an illegal business under the unlicensed name “Capital Cores Plus LLC”, Dawkins has been purchasing stolen catalytic converters or scamming legitimate businesses out of them all over Arizona via cash, and “cash app” from his Prescott apartment. Through the service of a search warrant, investigators uncovered financial records not in compliance with the law mandated reporting of purchased or sold catalytic converters. In total, Dawkins unlawfully purchased and sold approximately 10,000 - 14,000 or 59,000 pounds of catalytic converters in the last 18 months and reported less than 15 purchased or sold. In his profit loss statement for 2021, he claimed a total business profit of $2,400.00, however, records show a net of approximately $2,400,000.00 in sales. Along with the shifty records, detectives seized approximately 350 catalytic converters worth over $250,000.00 from a shipment sent by Dawkins the day prior to the service of the warrant.
The demand for these catalytic converters is highly based on the three precious metals found in them; Platinum, Palladium, and Rhodium, and can be worth up to around $1,200.00 or more for the precious metals alone. YCSO and DPS Vehicle Task Force Agents found that from January of 2021 through July 2022 over $3,450,000.00 had been deposited into Dawkins bogus business account and that most, if not all, is from the illegal sale of these stolen devices. Dawkins has been booked into YCSO jail in Camp Verde for Fraudulent Schemes & Artifices, Trafficking in Stolen Property, Illegal Control of an illegal Enterprise, Illegally Conducting an Illegal Enterprise, Money Laundering, Possession of Altered Property, Prohibited Scrap Metal Transactions, reporting exempt violation, and Unlawful Purchase or Sale of Used Catalytic Converters.
Original source can be found here.
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