Onyx Motorsports owner Farhad Kankash indicted for multiple fraud counts, theft totaling $350,000+

Farhad Kankash, 37, of Scottsdale, Maricopa County, Arizona, United States is the owner of Onyx Motorsports, an auto dealership of pre-owned, late model luxury vehicles such as Aston Martin, Bentley Motors, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. He is of Iranian descent.

Aside from Scottsdale, Kankash has lived in various parts of Arizona including Chandler, Fort McDowell, Tempe and Phoenix. He is married to Sahar Salari.

Kankashi worked as the general manager of Luxor Auto Group, a company founded in 2006 and based in Scottsdale, while Salari was an office manager there. On May 8, 2014, he registered Onyx Motorsports, which operated in Scottsdale.

Detectives with the Arizona Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General found out that Kankash committed several types of fraud against Onyx Motorsports customers and lenders. He allegedly failed to provide titles to customers who purchased vehicles, failed to pay off liens on trade-in vehicles.

By obtaining multiple loans for the same vehicle, Kankash allegedly defrauded lenders. In June 2019, he told the Arizona Republic that Onyx Motorsports failed to pay off loans and issue title to vehicles but he never set out to defraud customers and was forced to file bankruptcy.

“What do you want me to do about it?” Kankash told the publication. “If I was taking people’s money, I would be in jail.”

Kankash is accused of not refunding the money of a customer who returned a 2014 Bentley purchased from Onyx Motorsports. He allegedly obtained a loan for the same vehicle for $60,000 and went on to sell it to another local car dealer under the dealership name of his company.

Moreover, Kankash allegedly obtained two loans from two different lending companies for the same vehicle, which was a 2014 Land Rover, and used trade-in vehicles he did not own as collateral for the loans. Each of the loans was more than $60,000.

In 2019, Braeger Finance filed a lawsuit against Kankash and Salari in Maricopa County Superior Court in Maricopa County, Arizona. The couple was accused of fraud, misrepresentation, unjust enrichment and breach of contract.

On September 23, 2020, Kankash was arrested at his home in Scottsdale. He was booked into the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Fourth Avenue Jail in Phoenix, Maricopa County.

On September 25, 2020, a grand jury indicted Kankash for multiple fraud counts and theft totaling over $350,000. He was charged with 14 felony counts for theft and fraudulent schemes.