Feb. 15, 2025 7:45p
(WGTD)---A Chicago man is accused of bilking Wisconsin residents by allegedly rolling back odometers and altering titles in vehicle sales.
34-year-old Jeffrey Ziga was in Kenosha Court Friday where he was formally charged with 10 counts of tampering with odometers and violating mileage disclosure requirements. Bond was set at $50,000.
The first set of circumstances listed in the criminal complaint is similar to the others.
With the initial connection made through Facebook, a victim said he met with a man who had a 2013 Chrysler Town & Country for sale with a mileage of around 86,000. The victim said he paid the man $6,000 in cash and received a Wisconsin title in return.
After the sale, the victim conducted an online search of the vehicle's VIN number and learned that it had been for sale at an auction recently with a mileage of 183,000.
Launching an investigation, a Kenosha County Sheriff's Department detective took a close look at the title and determined that the odometer readings had been altered.
The detective spoke with an investigator for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation who said the defendant had been linked to seven reports of odometer fraud.
Several phony Facebook accounts were allegedly used in the sales.
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Feb. 21.
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