SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — Two people have been charged with perjury and fraud for allegedly conducting a scheme to obtain forgeries of car titles out of Iowa. According to court documents out of Woodbury County, 32-year-old Rhonda Vermilyea, of Sioux City, would forge the owner’s signature of the Sioux City towing company she worked for on abandoned vehicle affidavits from mid-2020 to January 2023. She would then allegedly supply those forged documents to 52-year-old Christopher Abelson, of North Sioux City, South Dakota so that he could obtain a fraudulent Iowa Dealer’s Title, allowing him to sell them. By forging the owner’s signature, it implied that the vehicles were in the towing company’s possession and sold with a fraudulent bill of sale. The documents specified that none of the transactions actually occurred, and the owner was not aware of the employee’s alleged schemes.

Vermilyea allegedly admitted to receiving phone calls from Abelson with the VIN, make, model, year, and color which she would use to falsify an odometer disclosure, damage disclosure, abandon vehicle affidavit, and bill of sale. The information on more than 60 vehicles had been falsified. According to the documents, Abelson allegedly started by charging $500 per title, which increased to $1,000 over time. When the scheme had come to an end, he obtained over $30,000 for all titles involved in the case. Since the forgeries implied that the vehicles had been sold by the company, it would have created a ‘huge tax issue for the company’ due to the unreported income. None of the vehicles were ever in Iowa, or the company’s possession at any time, per Vermilyea and Abelson’s admissions, documents state. Additionally, Vermilyea allegedly did not send notices to previous owners of the vehicles, or possible lien holders which is required by law.

Vermilyea and Abelson told officials that they knew what they were doing was wrong, and not “100% by the code,” according to the documents. Vermilyea admitted to acting on her own, using her knowledge base with abandoned vehicles and their paperwork at the request of Abelson. No other employees of the company are known to have conspired with Vermilyea and she has since been fired from the company, according to the documents.

Vermilyea and Abelson were both arrested and charged Wednesday with first-degree fraudulent practice, perjury, and conspiracy to commit non-forcible felony. Vermilyea was also charged with one count of forgery. The case originated out of Woodbury County.