- Abdul Rauf Kisana, a Utah luxury car dealer, faces new fraud charges.
- Kisana allegedly took $510,000 from investors to purchase luxury cars, promising returns.
- Investors reportedly lost $280,000 as Kisana failed to deliver titles or profits, the charges state.
SOUTH JORDAN — The owner of a used car dealership in Salt Lake County, who is already on probation for acquiring high-end cars and then defaulting on payments and not delivering titles, is now accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from investors for luxury vehicles but not delivering on promised returns.
Abdul Rauf Kisana, 37, of Sandy, was charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with two counts of communications fraud, a second-degree felony.
According to charging documents, Kisana is "a luxury vehicle broker and owner of Grand Luxury Auto LLC."
Two South Jordan residents claim they wired Kisana about $510,000 "for investment purposes, with the expectation of profit," the charges state. Kisana then used that money in 2022 to purchase "two Porsches, a Mercedes, and a Lamborghini," according to prosecutors.
An affidavit filed as part of a previous case, in which Kisana was convicted and allegedly violated the conditions of his probation, further states that Kisana assured his victims "that any funds provided would be repaid in the event Kisana failed to do so."
"Kisana represented that vehicle titles would be delivered promptly, and that both principal and profits would be remitted in short order to (the victims)," the affidavit states.
Prosecutors say he wired $77,000 back to the investors in 2022, followed by an additional $153,000.
But, "over time, communication with Kisana became very sporadic, no profits, no vehicle titles, or proof of purchase were provided, leaving (the investors) with an outstanding loss of approximately $280,000," according to the charges.
"Kisana's recurring pattern of vehicle-related misrepresentations and undelivered titles align with publicly documented criminal conduct in Utah. Moreover, the conduct attributed to Kisana in this affidavit exhibits notable parallels with other instances of criminal activity, including court-accepted factual recitations and plea-in-abeyance proceedings involving failure to deliver vehicle titles and communications fraud from 2019," the affidavit for his probation violation states.
In 2020, Kisana was charged with two counts of equity skimming, a third-degree felony, and three counts of dealer failing to deliver a title, a class A misdemeanor. Then, in 2021, he was charged with three counts of communications fraud, a second-degree felony, for using insufficient funds to purchase 10 "high-end automobiles," according to charging documents.
He was convicted in a plea in abeyance that resolved both cases in 2023. But in January, an affidavit was filed regarding the investigation into potential new charges against him, and a hearing was requested. A hearing to review whether he violated the terms of his plea in abeyance is scheduled for May 28.
