KAUKAUNA — Assistant Police Chief Sanderfoot was invited to the Federal District Court in Milwaukee last week to receive an Investigative Achievement award for his work on a major used car fraud case.
Sanderfoot’s work helped lead to a federal conviction of former Kaukauna used car dealer John Solberg who received a 30 month federal prison sentence, according to a news release.
Solberg also was ordered to pay roughly $290,000 in restitution to his victims, many of whom are from the Kaukauna area.
According to court records, Solberg opened a dealership in Kaukauna called Standard Pre-Owned after earlier opening his first dealership in 2012 in Suamico.
While operating his dealerships, Solberg developed a scheme to defraud people who listed their vehicles for sale on Craigslist, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Solberg would contact the sellers and offer to sell their vehicles on consignment from his car lots.
Court records indicate that Solberg then would sell the consignment cars without paying the owners of the vehicle and would provide fraudulent vehicle titles to the purchasers.
This case was investigated by the Brown County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of the Kaukauna Police Department and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Division of Motor Vehicles. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Daniel R. Humble and Julie F. Stewart.
