A 34-year-old man from Shelburne, Vermont will be spending the next four years behind bars after admitting to taking delivery of five new Tesla vehicles without paying them as part of a simple order loophole he discovered.
In September 2018, Michael Gonzalez placed an order for a Tesla Model 3 costing $58,000 through the company’s website. He provided a $2,500 deposit and was notified the following month that the car was ready for delivery. He then provided Tesla with bank account information and took delivery of the car. Tesla also gave him a certificate of ownership.
The only issue is that Gonzalez knew the bank account information he had provided Tesla was for an account without the necessary funds to pay for the car. Tesla followed up the following week notifying him that the transaction couldn’t be completed. Gonzalez ignored Tesla and soon sold the Model 3 to a used car dealer for $42,000.
Prosecutors revealed that Gonzalez repeated these steps four additional times, each time for a high-end Model X. In some cases, he would enter the name of a girlfriend or ex-girlfriend as the buyer, provide Tesla with account details with insufficient funds, and then take delivery of the vehicle. Market Watch reports he sold one Model X on Craigslist for $108,000 and one on eBay for $97,000.
Read: Tesla’s New Base Model S And Model X Are $10,000 Cheaper, But There’s A Catch
The 34-year-old’s scheme reached a crescendo later in 2019 when he took delivery of a Model X without paying for it but was not provided with a certificate of ownership by Tesla. So, what did he do? Well, he decided to drive the car out onto the frozen Lake Champlain and set it on fire. He then filed an insurance claim for it but failed to appear for an interview when the insurer asked him to make an in-person visit.
In another case, a repo man was sent by Tesla to take back a Model X that had been delivered to Gonzalez. He fled and stored the EV in a storage unit.
The man was scheduled to face trial but in April, pled guilty to five counts of possessing and disposing of stolen vehicles. This week he was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay back Tesla $493,000 and forfeit the $231,900 he made by selling three of the five cars.
