BENTON — A federal judge has sentenced Alen Saric, 36, of St. Louis, to 87 months in prison for his role in a $1.7 million vehicle sale fraud scheme that targeted private sellers in Madison, Jasper, Bond and Fayette counties in southern Illinois.
Saric pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, interstate transportation of property obtained by fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The scheme involved using counterfeit cashier’s checks to purchase vehicles on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist from 2018 until August 2023.
According to court documents, Saric and co-conspirators issued more than $1.7 million in fake checks printed on security-enhanced paper bearing real bank names and logos but with fraudulent routing numbers. After acquiring vehicles with these bogus checks, the group resold the vehicles for cash before victims could discover the checks were worthless…