Cascade Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Rolling Back Odometers Publisher: U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Iowa Date: 26 April 2024 Subjects: American Government , Crime

A man who was responsible for forty-seven cars that had lower, false odometers was sentenced to federal prison on April 8, 2024.

Randolph Forrest, age 69, from Cascade, Iowa, received the prison term after a January 17, 2023 guilty plea to one count of wire fraud.

Information from sentencing showed that from June 2012 through July 2021 Forrest conspired with others to roll back odometers on used cars to sell them for more money.  Forrest and others involved in the scheme tampered with the odometers of at least forty-seven cars by having the odometers fraudulently altered to reflect lower mileages.  They then sold the cars to unsuspecting buyers at higher sales prices than the buyers would have paid had the true mileage been disclosed.  As part of the fraud, Forrest mailed forms to a repair business requesting that odometers be changed to reflect lower mileages.  Forrest advertised the cars with the lower, false mileages on Facebook and Craigslist.     

Forrest was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams.  Forrest was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and six months’ home confinement.  He was ordered to make $140,178.55 in restitution to forty-seven victims of his offense.  He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that odometer fraud in the United States results in consumer losses of more than $1 billion annually and has established a special hotline to handle odometer fraud complaints.  Individuals with information relating to odometer tampering should call (800) 424-9393 or send an email to odometerfraud@dot.gov. 

More information on odometer fraud is available on the NHTSA website https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle-safety/odometer-fraud and tips on detecting and avoiding odometer fraud are available at this page: www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nvs/pdf/811284.pdf.

Forrest was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the United States Marshal on May 6, 2024.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kyndra Lundquist and investigated by the United States Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Iowa Department of Transportation, and the United States Postal Inspection Service. 

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. 

The case file number is 22-CR-1016.

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Updated April 26, 2024