KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A number of Christians in Missouri are victims of fraud in what the U.S. attorney in Kansas City calls the “Miracle Cars” scam.
Two people already have been convicted in the scam, and the two leading figures currently are on trial in federal court in Kansas City. The trial is expected to last well into June.
Robert Gomez of Bell, Calif., passed himself off as the heir to a $400 million estate. He claimed that his father owned a number of luxury cars he wanted to sell to Christians at steep discounts — a Cadillac for $2,500 and a two-year-old Mercedes-Benz for $3,000 — as a reward for their faith. His partner, James Nichols of Carson, Calif., posed as executor of the estate. The problem came when the cars were never delivered.
Nationwide, the Miracle Cars scheme netted more than $20 million from the “sale” of 7,000 vehicles from Oct. 1, 1998, to June 25, 2002. The U.S. attorney’s office began investigating in the fall of 2001.
Corinne Conway of Higginsville pleaded guilty to felony tax evasion on the nearly $1 million she made. Gwendolyn Baker of Memphis pleaded guilty to two counts of interstate transportation of property obtained by fraud.
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