RIVERSIDE, NY — Two half-brothers are part of a group of 34 people, apprehended last year as part of Operation Gingerman, to plead guilty to their roles in a large-scale vehicle theft and title-washing ring, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney's office said Monday.
A total of 35 defendants, which included 33 people and two corporations, were indicted in June 2025 after a nearly two-and-a-half-year investigation into the
fraudulent financing of more than 120 vehicles from dealerships across Suffolk, Nassau, Kings,
Westchester, and Orange counties, his office said.
The two ringleaders, half-brothers, Mark McCall, 34, of
Centereach, and Keith Agard, 32, of Port Jefferson Station, resold the stolen vehicles with fraudulent titles, according to his office.
McCall pleaded guilty last Thursday to two counts of second-degree attempted criminal possession of a weapon, and attempted enterprise corruption.
He is due back in court on Oct. 29 and is expected to be sentenced to five years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision on the gun charges, and three-and-a-half to seven years in prison on the enterprise corruption charge, to run concurrently, Tierney's office said.
Patch has reached out to his attorney, Jonathan Manley of Hauppauge, for comment.
Agard previously pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and enterprise corruption, and was sentenced June 3 to one to three years in prison.
Patch has reached out to his attorney, Tara Laterza, of East Moriches.
A total of 32 additional defendants previously pleaded guilty for their respective roles in the operation.
The majority of them were sentenced to time ranging from six months to up to three years.
One case remains pending.
Tierney said, "Enterprise corruption is a systematic exploitation of the rules that safeguard our communities."
"These defendants went to great lengths to fleece buyers, giving them vehicles with hidden liens and pocketing their hard-earned money," he said. "We take consumer scams seriously in Suffolk County, and it is fitting that the ringleaders of this scam will spend the next several years in prison."
Between March 3, 2022, and May 28, 2025, McCall led a "criminal" car theft and title-washing enterprise, along with Agard, their girlfriends, family, and friends, prosecutors said.Members of the "criminal enterprise" recruited more than 20 people to purchase vehicles from various car dealerships using forged documentation such as pay stubs or utility bills, prosecutors said, adding that the vehicles were usually obtained through financing, with little or no down payment.
The cars were then turned over to McCall, Agard and other top members of the enterprise, but few, if any, payments
were ever made to the finance companies to pay down the loans on the purchased cars, according to prosecutors.
Following the purchases, the criminal enterprise obtained a "clean" New York title, free of any liens, for the vehicles, and this part of the operation evolved over time, as the pair changed their methods of obtaining a "clean" title, or otherwise fraudulently "erasing" the vehicles' liens, prosecutors said.
The vehicles were then resold to either an internet-based automobile dealer such as CarMax, or to individual buyers through platforms such as Facebook Marketplace, or through other sale methods, according to prosecutors.
Many of the purchasers did not know that there was a lien on the vehicle from the finance company or that the title was fraudulent, prosecutors said.
In total, over 120 vehicles were purchased and sold by McCall's and Agard's network, netting around $5.5 million profit for the criminal enterprise, according to prosecutors.
In June 2025, search warrants were executed at the homes of McCall and Agard, and McCall was found with a Bond Arms .45-caliber derringer pistol and a Taurus .40-caliber Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, prosecutors said.
Agard was found with an Israel Weapon Industries 9-mm semi-automatic pistol, and a co-defendant was found to be in illegal possession of a Springfield Armory .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, according to prosecutors.
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