Tennessee Car Dealer, Who May or May Not Be a ‘Lizard Person,’ Headed to Prison on Fraud Charges
A judge recently sentenced a Nashville car dealer after a jury found him guilty of fraud. During the trial, the government called a witness who they asked if the car dealer is a lizard person.Seriously.
The federal court sentenced Mark Janbakhsh of Brentwood, Tennessee, to 42 months in federal prison on multiple fraud charges. Janbakhsh was the chief executive officer and majority owner of a car dealership named Auto Masters.
According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), between approximately 2013 and 2017, Auto Masters had a line of credit with Capital One and First Tennessee Bank (now First Horizon Bank).
“Janbakhsh conspired with his brother Ron Janbakhsh, and their co-conspirators, Steve Piper and Christian Quiroz, who also worked for Auto Masters, to submit false documentation to Capital One to artificially inflate the value of the company’s collateral which would allow Mark Janbakhsh to draw on lines of credit he was otherwise not entitled to take,” the DOJ stated. “During the course of the scheme, Auto Masters fraudulently obtained over $24 million dollars that it was not entitled to receive.”
In addition, Mark Janbakhsh lied under oath about the fraud during the Auto Masters’ 2017 bankruptcy proceedings. At that time, Janbakhsh found out federal agents were attempting to speak with his co-conspirators. He offered one of the co-conspirators over $300,000 if he would leave the jurisdiction in order to hamper the investigation.
Key witness admitted believing in ‘lizard people’
During the fraud trial, the Nashville Banner reports, the government called as a witness a man who served as the head of IT at Auto Masters. He worked in that capacity from 2001 until 2015. He allegedly helping delete emails and, starting in 2015, had recorded hundreds of conversations.
During his testimony, the defense attorney asked the witness an odd question. “Are you terrified of Mr. Janbakhsh because you think he is a lizard person?”
“I don’t know if Mr. Janbakhsh is a lizard person,” the witness replied. “There’s a difference between a belief and entertaining something as an idea.”
The witness elaborated on his “his “extended imagination.” He added, “There are times when I see something which I think of as something reptilian in a person.”
Later during his testimony, the defense attorney introduced into evidence blog posts made by the witness. Among those blog posts was a quote that read, “I see London, I see France, I see reptiles in golfing pants.”
Despite all of the lizard people nonsense, the jury still found the defendant and his co-conspirators guilty.
The court ordered Janbakhsh and two of his co-conspirators, Steven Piper and Christian Quiroz, to pay $11,272,521.20 in restitution and to serve one year of supervised release. This was in addition to their prison sentences. The court ordered Ron Janbakhsh to pay $4,185,478 in restitution and to serve one year of supervised release, in addition to his prison sentence.
