A Hungarian scam artist who operated out of a Dupont Circle hotel pleaded guilty to a scheme that advertised the sale of boats and cars online, but never came through with the delivery of the vehicles, authorities said.
Istvan Laszlo Csurgo, 31, was part of a three-person international crew that in three months last summer swindled more than $1 million from victims from around the United States, according to charging documents.
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Csurgo, of Budapest, pleaded guilty to bank fraud Wednesday in a D.C. federal court. He faces up to 40 years in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for Aug. 17, and has agreed to cooperate with the investigation as part of his plea deal.
The crew set up shop around East Coast cities like Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and then moved on quickly before their scam could be discovered.
According to charging documents, Csurgo arrived in the D.C. area around July 22, 2011, and stayed at the Dupont Circle Hotel on New Hampshire Avenue from about July 31 to Aug. 25.
The trio used counterfeit Portuguese and Greek passports and drivers’ licenses to set up set up nine limited liability companies, open 26 bank accounts in D.C., Montgomery County and Northern Virginia, and rent out UPS Store mailboxes to establish D.C.-area addresses, prosecutors said.
The ring then advertised cars, trucks and boats on websites such as eBay and Cars.com. They used official-sounding businesses names like AMZ Vehicle Brokers and Vehicle International Brokers.
Their victims were from throughout the United States.
After the buyers wired the money to bank accounts opened with bogus identities by members of the ring, the trio would stop communication with them and never deliver the vehicle.
The ring received an average of about $20,000 apiece from more than 60 victims, agents said.
But the scammers left behind evidence at two D.C. hotels, police said.
Csurgo was arrested on Feb. 10 after he got off a plane at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina. He has been in custody ever since.
