St. Louis County Man Sentenced for Aiding Fraud

ST. LOUIS - U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk on Thursday sentenced a man who helped someone fraudulently purchase vehicles using stolen identities to one year in prison and ordered him to pay $89,263 in restitution.

Lavell Caradine, 35, worked at a Florissant car dealership at the time. From June 24, 2019, until Aug. 23, 2019, he sold three vehicles to Naquan Powers, who used the personal information of others to buy and finance the vehicles. Powers texted the victims' personal information to Caradine ahead of time so Caradine could confirm that Powers could use that information to make the purchase, Caradine's plea agreement says.

After using the dealership's system to perform a credit check, Caradine discovered that some victims' identities were unusable. In one case, the victim was deceased and in other, the person had their credit frozen, a sentencing memo filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Klocke said.

With Caradine's help, Powers bought a Chevrolet Tahoe with a $42,086 loan, a Chevrolet Impala with a $18,098 loan and a BMW 428 with a $29,079 loan. Powers was trying to buy a Dodge Challenger when Caradine texted him a warning that police were at the dealership.

Caradine pleaded guilty in February to two counts of bank fraud.

Powers, 27, of Hazelwood, is serving a 111-month prison term after pleading guilty and admitting involvement in the vehicle purchases, a credit card scam and pandemic fraud.

The Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Klocke prosecuted the case.