Former Porsche dealer swindled way into luxury lifestyle

POMPANO BEACH – A former Porsche salesman swiped customers’ deposits and left them waiting for their luxury cars so he could hang out in swanky nightclubs, eat lavish meals and wear flashy jewelry.

Shiraaz Sookralli netted almost $3 million from the scheme while he worked as a vice president at Champion Porsche, according to court documents.

Sookralli pleaded guilty Monday to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. He faces up to 20 years in prison at sentencing. A sentencing hearing for Nov. 14.

Sookralli, 45, of Plantation, was a vice president of marketing at the Pompano Beach exotic car dealership and worked there from 2007 to 2018.

But during the last years of his employment he “maintained an extravagant and opulent lifestyle,” according to court documents.

A father of 10 children, court records indicate that Sookralli owed more than $176,000 in credit card debt, before interest, in 2016.

But by late 2017, investigators allege he was amassing large tabs at high-end nightclubs and has been scheduled restaurants, and paying for it all with the proceeds from his scam.

In his guilty plea, Sookralli admitted that in March 2017 he began funneling money from customer pre-orders into a bank account that he owned that mimicked those of Champion Porsche and its affiliates.

Sookralli used “signed false and fraudulent purchase orders on official Champion Porsche forms, (and) sham vehicle build sheets,” among other tricks, to convince customers that their car orders were legitimate, court documents show.

But at least 30 customers who thought they were putting a down payment on a six-figure Porsche Carrera 911 were instead sending money directly to Sookralli.

Champion Porsche caught wind of the scheme, filing a civil suit in September 2018 that exposed Sookralli. According to court documents, Sookralli abandoned his position at Champion Porsche when he was confronted with evidence of the scheme.

According to the criminal complaint, attorneys for Champion Porsche caught up with Sookralli by telephone on the September 10, 2018 and asked him if he had taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from the dealership. Sookralli responded that it was “more like millions.” He then emailed the attorney a list of customers he had taken deposits from.

Roy Diaz, attorney for Champion Porsche, said in April that the dealer reimbursed the cheated customers. “We made sure the customers were made whole,” he said.

Attorneys for Sookralli did not respond for requests to comment Tuesday.

After the lawsuit, FBI agents filed a criminal complaint in the Southern District of Florida claiming the Porsche salesman had engaged in wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering.