Clayton Iley, a 41-year-old businessman from Stephenville, Texas, was sentenced Oct. 1 to 160 months in federal prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, and the vehicles he agreed to forfeit number more than 90. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas said in an Oct. 2 release that U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman imposed the sentence after Iley pleaded guilty June 17.
According to the release, which cites court records, Iley ran an insurance brokerage, Clayton Texas Legacy Insurance Group, LLC, from Cross Plains, Texas, selling home, auto, life, health, farm and ranch, and commercial policies. From January 2020 through May 2026 he also used two other companies he controlled, Texas Legacy Holdings and Enterprises, LLC and Spartan Global Security, LLC, which did business as “Black Eagle PMC,” to move money.
Prosecutors described three methods. Iley told victims he could invest their money in a “Bonded Note” loan program run by the U.S. Department of Defense for private military contractors; the release says the program did not exist and that he knew it did not, and that he collected more than $2 million on the claim. He took premium payments from insurance clients, did not open the policies they asked for, and spent the money on himself and on the scheme. And he gave clients’ personal information to financial institutions to get credit cards in their names without their knowledge, then used those cards to deposit money into Spartan Global’s bank accounts, reported the transactions as business receipts, and paid personal expenses and for exotic collector vehicles.
Why the identity theft count adds time by law
Federal law sets a fixed price on the identity theft count. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1028A, a person convicted of aggravated identity theft receives two years on top of the sentence for the underlying felony, cannot be placed on probation for it, and generally cannot serve it at the same time as another prison term. Wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343 carries up to 20 years per count. The release does not say how many counts Iley pleaded to or how Pittman divided the 160 months, which works out to 13 years and 4 months. The statute does mean at least 24 of those months were stacked on the fraud sentence by requirement, not by the judge’s choice.
Seventeen cars named, more than 90 agreed
Under his plea agreement, Iley agreed to forfeit more than 90 exotic collector vehicles that the release says were obtained with funds from the scheme. So far, the release says, investigators have seized 17 and obtained a preliminary forfeiture order on them: three 2022 Maserati MC20s, a 2016 and a 2018 Ferrari 488, four Lamborghini entries (a 2012 “Model Ave,” a 2012 Aventador, and a 2015 Huracan listed twice), a 2021 Porsche Taycan, a 2014 Dodge SRT Viper, a 2013 Toyota Tundra, a 2023 Jeep Gladiator, a 1968 Pontiac, and three entries written as a 1989 “AM G M99,” a 1990 BMY M923A and a 1993 AM General. That is fewer than one in five of the 90-plus.
The release says those vehicles will be sold to fund restitution owed to victims. It gives no restitution total, no number of victims, and no sale date, and it carries no response from Iley or his attorney.
A preliminary order is not a sale
Under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32.2, a preliminary forfeiture order names specific property and is entered without regard to any third party’s interest in it. It becomes final as to the defendant at sentencing, which was Oct. 1. Anyone else who claims an interest in a car can file a petition in a separate ancillary proceeding, and the order stays preliminary as to those people until that proceeding ends. The release does not say whether any of the 17 vehicles carries a lien or a competing claim.
It also does not say who will run the sales. The U.S. Marshals Service, which manages many federal forfeitures, says on its asset forfeiture page that proceeds from asset sales go to operating the program, compensating victims and supporting law enforcement efforts. Whether that applies here is not stated, and the split between those uses decides how much of the sale money reaches the people whose names were on the credit cards.
Garages as restitution funds
Prosecutors turning a defendant’s garage into a victims’ fund has shown up in other cases The Auto Wire has covered, including an Atlanta woman’s $10 million Amazon fraud case that ended with a Lamborghini, a Tesla, a Porsche and a Dodge Durango seized, and a $245 million crypto theft that paid for 28 supercars. In the Iley case the order of events is the reverse of what the sentence suggests: the 160 months ended the criminal case on Oct. 1, while the repayment still depends on a sale schedule and a restitution figure that have not been made public. A final restitution number and the Marshals’ or the court’s sale notices are the next things to watch for.
If a fraud defendant forfeits a garage full of exotic cars, should the government sell them quickly, even at a discount, or hold out for top collector prices to get victims more money?