Three Eastern Iowa Men Charged With Odometer Fraud

Eastern Iowans looking for a reliable set of wheels at an affordable cost may be getting ripped off by three area men selling on Craigslist. The three men recently pleaded not guilty to charges of odometer fraud in the U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids last Friday. Their trial is tentatively set for April after Jerrett John Schreiber of Waverly, David Russell Stangeland of Dike and Dustin “Turtle” Michael Arends of Cedar Falls were indicted on conspiracy to commit odometer fraud and odometer tampering.

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They are accused, in a probe dating back to 2016, of purchasing vehicles, mostly  Chevrolet Silverados built in the mid-2000s, according to the indictment, then rolling back the mileage by anywhere from 80,000 to 100,000 miles and reselling them at a higher cost.

Investigators with the Iowa Department of Transportation were tipped off by a car dealer who had sold what turned out to be one of the vehicles in question that was later found for sale showing lower mileage on a Craigslist ad, which is where the majority of their fraudulent sales occurred.

The official language in the indictment reads

The actions and misrepresentations of defendants and their co-conspirators resulted in the sale of vehicles with false odometer readings at higher sale prices than buyers would have paid had the true and accurate mileage been disclosed

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier says the three are free pending the April trial.