Four men were arraigned Tuesday in Michigan’s 19th District Court in a Rouge Plant parts theft case that the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office says involved more than $80,000 in new car and truck parts taken from Ford’s Rouge Plant in Dearborn and sold through a Detroit shop and on eBay, CBS Detroit reported. Wissam Faraj, 35, of Canton, a former Ford employee who was terminated in 2025, is charged with conducting a criminal enterprise and receiving and concealing stolen property. So are Aiman Kahil, 25, Firas Kahil, 36, and Badr Kahil, 63, all of Dearborn. The prosecutor’s office ties all four to Startec Auto. These are allegations, and none of the four has been convicted.
Seven Saturdays in 2025
WDIV in Detroit reported, from the prosecutor’s account, that the thefts happened on Saturday nights between March 8 and April 19, 2025, which is seven Saturdays by my count. In that account Aiman Kahil ordered parts from Faraj, who was working at Ford at the time. Faraj delivered them to Startec Auto Parts in Detroit, and Aiman, Firas and Badr Kahil sold them there and mainly on eBay.
Ford employees raised concerns with supervisors, WDIV reported, and Ford’s global security team investigated and took the matter to Dearborn police. Police arranged a controlled purchase of parts and followed with search warrants, according to CBS Detroit. Dearborn’s own release puts the arrests on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, with warrants served at a Dearborn residence, a Canton residence and two Detroit businesses. Prosecutors said they reviewed thousands of text messages, emails and photos, including security images tied to deliveries, along with an inventory of thousands of stolen parts, and that thousands of the parts were recovered. Dearborn Police Chief Issa Shahin credited Ford’s internal security with exposing the ring and handing it to his investigators. Prosecutor Kym Worthy said of the sales, “It was lucrative, shameless, and absolutely illegal.”
What the Two Charges Carry
Conducting a criminal enterprise is the heavier count. Michigan’s racketeering statute, MCL 750.159i, bars anyone employed by or associated with an enterprise from knowingly conducting or participating in its affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity. The penalty section, 750.159j, makes a violation a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $100,000, or both, and it directs the court to order forfeiture of property used in, derived from or realized through the violation after a conviction. The enterprise count lets prosecutors put the person who allegedly ordered the parts, the one who allegedly supplied them and the shop that allegedly sold them into a single case.
Receiving and concealing stolen property, MCL 750.535, is priced by value. At $20,000 or more it carries up to 10 years, or a fine of up to $15,000 or three times the value of the property, whichever is greater. At the $80,000 the prosecutor’s office alleges, three times the value is $240,000. Those figures are statutory ceilings, and a judge would set any sentence after a conviction.
Bond Conditions Aimed at Property
CBS Detroit reported the bonds: $200,000 for Faraj and $100,000 each for the three Kahils, all with GPS tether monitoring. All four were ordered to surrender their passports, stay in the state and the country, stay away from Ford facilities and other locations tied to the investigation, and refrain from transferring assets or property. The asset condition matches a forfeiture provision of the racketeering statute: when forfeitable property has been sold, moved out of the court’s reach or lost value, subsection 8 of 750.159j lets the court order forfeiture of other property of the defendant up to the same value. I read the no-transfer order as protecting that remedy before trial. The reports do not say why Faraj’s bond is double the others’.
The Millions Are Not in the Records
Our earlier coverage of the arrests, including a November 2025 report and an October 2026 follow-up, described a theft that ran about two years and cost millions of dollars. I could not find either figure in the records I reviewed. Dearborn’s May 7, 2025 release, the earliest official account, said four men were arrested after several months of investigation, withheld their names pending charges, and gave no dollar value and named no plant. The case that reached court is $80,000 and seven Saturdays at the Rouge Plant. Ford’s statement to WDIV referred to suspected thefts and unauthorized sales at two manufacturing facilities, so whether other conduct is under investigation is unconfirmed.
Dec. 2 Hearing and What Is Still Unreported
A probable cause conference is set for Dec. 2, CBS Detroit reported. Under the Michigan courts’ felony case-processing guide, that conference is not on the record and is where a judge can take pleas and change bond; the preliminary examination, where the court decides whether to bind the case over to circuit court, follows 5 to 7 days later. WDIV reported that all four pleaded not guilty. I found no statement from the defendants or their attorneys in the reports I reviewed. Nothing released says which parts left the plant or who bought them on eBay.
Does $80,000 in parts and seven Saturday nights justify a racketeering charge with a 20-year ceiling, or is that statute meant for bigger crews?