Smith County Man Sentenced in Tyler Automax Fraud Scheme

Topics:  Tyler Automax

U.S. Attorney’s Office
18 March 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TYLER, TX—A 38-year-old Tyler, Texas, man has been sentenced for wire fraud in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney John M. Bales today.

Mohammad Moosa Yahya pleaded guilty on Nov. 19, 2014, to wire fraud and was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison today by U.S. District Judge Leonard E. Davis. Yahya was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $455,000.

According to information presented in Court, Yahya served as president of EMN Global Trading Corporation, a Texas corporation based in Tyler. In April 2001, EMN Global Trading began doing business as a used car dealership in Tyler operating under the name Tyler Automax. Beginning in May 2011, Yahya devised a scheme to defraud investors by representing that their funds would be used for operation of the dealership, specifically for the purchase of vehicles that would be resold. Yahya told the prospective investors that they would be paid profits from the vehicle sales. Yahya failed to sue the investors’ money to purchase vehicles and instead misappropriated the funds for his personal use. Yahya was indicted by a federal grand jury on Sep. 13, 2012. In October 2013, Yahya was arrested in Saudi Arabia by Saudi law enforcement officials and returned to U.S. custody in March 2014.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Coan.