ST. LOUIS – Four people, including a businessman and three former Missouri license office employees, have pleaded guilty in a long-running car registration scheme involving bribes, fake registrations, forged documents, and tax evasion.
From March 2024 to June 2025, according the the U.S. Department of Justice, the following four individuals have pleaded guilty:
- Gary Wilds, 48
- Ashlyn Graeff, 39
- Megan Leone, 42
- Michelle Boyer, 53
Wilds was the final of the four convicted in the scheme. On Wednesday, he admitted to dozens of federal charges, including 22 counts of wire fraud, six counts of making false statement, four counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
For several years, Wilds operated and owned Pinnacle Concierge, a business that helped customers register their vehicles with the Missouri Department of Revenue.
As early as 2015, investigators say Wilds orchestrated a years-long scheme to bribe Missouri license office employees to falsely certify that his clients’ vehicles had passed emissions and safety inspections.
He also bribed employees into submitting forged documents, claiming that vehicle owners had fulfilled tax, carried insurance and qualified for sales tax exemptions, according to his plea.
Some of Wilds’ customers knew that he was using illegal means to register their vehicles, often because the vehicles couldn’t pass inspections, the owners owed child support, or they were barred from registering in Missouri, according to his plea. However, others were unaware.
Investigators say Boyer met Wilds at a contract licensing office as early as 2015 and began assisting him in fraudulent transactions.
Leone, whom Wilds knew before 2017, started working at a license office in St. Charles County. After she was hired as a title clerk, Wilds began paying her to help register vehicles and exempting vehicles to avoid state and local taxes.
When Leone was later promoted to a manager of her office, she previously instructed Graeff, her subordinate, to begin falsifying vehicle registration documents for Wilds.
Investigators say Wilds paid Graeff $100 for each transaction, and while she initially conducted one or two a week, that number eventually rose up to 10 per day. According to plea agreements, Graeff’s actions caused more than $80,000 in lost tax revenue.
In connection with the case:
- Graeff pleaded guilty to three counts of making a false statement in March 2024.
- Leone pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and one count of making a false statement in December 2024.
- Boyer pleaded guilty to to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in May.
Graeff was sentenced last July to four years of probation and also ordered to pay $84,000 in restitution. Leone is scheduled to be sentenced on July 24, as is Boyer on August 21.
Wilds is scheduled to be sentenced on September 2. He faces up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines per each conspiracy and wire fraud charge.