Navin Khanna May Spend 17 Years in U.S. Prison for Selling Stolen Catalytic Convertors

U.S. prosecutors allege Navin Khanna and family members sold $600 million of catalytic converters stolen from cars

(Photo: U.S. Department of Justice.)

July 25, 2025

This week, in a court in Oklahoma, Navin Khanna pleaded guilty to leading a scheme that stole thousands of catalytic converters from vehicles in various U.S. states and sold them to a metal refinery that extracted their precious metals.

Khanna, 41-years-old, of Holmdel, New Jersey, “made $600 million and financed his ostentatious lifestyle (including a lamborghini and two ferraris) by buying and selling stolen goods,” Matthew R. Galeotti, an attorney of the U.S. Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a statement. “Khanna’s theft ring took advantage of hard-working citizens…by stealing catalytic converters, rendering the vehicle unusable,” U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson said in a statement.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Khanna admitted to being the owner and operator of New Jersey-based DG Auto Parts. From May 2020 through October 2022, Khanna conspired with others to purchase and transport large quantities of stolen catalytic converters from Oklahoma, California, Texas, and other states to New Jersey.

“I believe most of the catalytic converters I purchased were stolen,” Khanna stated in a plea agreement filed in the court in Oklahoma. “This is based on the new condition of many of the catalytic converters, the fact that many were cut out of the exhaust system of vehicles, and that many of the catalytic converters came from the same model of vehicles.”

Navin (Lovin) Khanna, his brother Tinu (Gagan) Khanna, 37, Ishu Lakra, 26, and three others operated DG Auto in multiple locations in New Jersey, “They knowingly purchased stolen catalytic converters” and then extracted their precious metal powders, according to the Justice Department. DG Auto sold the powders to a metal refinery.

In 2022, after Navin Khanna and Tinu Khanna were arrested, their parents Anita Khanna, 65, and Nirmal Khanna, 75, of Holmdel, and older brother Michael Khanna, 43, of Eatontown “continued DG Auto’s business of purchasing stolen catalytic converters,” according to U.S. officials. Related charges are pending in a California court against Navin Khanna, Tinu Khanna, Michael Khanna, and their parents. Also charged is Vishnu (Vasheem) Chintaman of Levittown, Pennsylvania, an employee of a metal refinery who knew he was “receiving powder extracted from stolen catalytic converters.” If convicted of the alleged crimes, each of the defendants in the California court face a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

(Photo: U.S. Department of Justice.)

The Federal Bureau of Investigations and other agencies began investigating Navin Khanna’s ring, starting in May 2021, after police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, discovered nearly 130 catalytic converters in the bed of a truck they stopped, after an off-duty officer reported suspicions about the vehicle, according to Bloomberg. In 2022, the FBI and other federal agencies charged more than twenty individuals in New Jersey, Oklahoma, California, New York, and other states for their role in the ring.

In 2021, about 19,000 catalytic converters were stolen from automobiles in California; the state accounted for more than a third of all catalytic converter theft claims nationwide.

Catalytic converters are part of a vehicle's exhaust device that reduce the toxic gas and pollutants from a vehicle's internal combustion engine into safe emissions. They are a target of thieves due to the high value of the precious metals, palladium, platinum, and rhodium, that make up their core.

In 2022, the black-market price for catalytic converters were above $1,000 each, depending on the type of vehicle and what state it is from. They can be stolen in less than a minute and often lack unique serial numbers, making them difficult to trace to their lawful owner.

Catalytic converters are typically sold intact to an extraction company which removes the core from the catalytic converter, using a “de-canning” process, resulting in the separation of the precious metal powders. The powders are then sold to a metal refinery for further processing.

In a plea agreement filed in a court in Oklahoma, Khanna said that he resold most of the catalytic converters to Dowa Metals & Mining, a metal refinery, which would then extract the powdered precious metals. Dowa Metals is a subsidiary of Japan-based Dowa Holdings Co. The company has not been charged in connection with Khanna’s case, CNBC reported,

As part of his plea agreement, Khanna agreed to forfeit almost $4 million in cash, 11 luxury vehicles — including a Lamborghini, two Mercedes AMGs, two Ferraris, a McLaren, a Porsche, a Ford F650 Truck, and a BMW M3 — real estate properties, high-end jewelry, gold bars, and over 200 pallets of catalytic converters, all seized by law enforcement during the search of Khanna’s properties.

Khanna’s 13 co-defendants in Oklahoma have pleaded guilty for their participation in the criminal scheme and are awaiting sentencing. They have agreed to forfeit more than $3.2 million, including more than $250,000 from multiple bank accounts; two lots of land located in Oklahoma, cars, and stolen catalytic converters seized during the investigation.

Navin Khanna could be sentenced up to 17 1/2 years in prison for the charges to which he pled gulity in the Oklahoma court. He also faces related charges in a case pending in a California court.

(Updated July 26, 2025.)