Taxi official charged in title scheme

An official at Chicago's largest taxi company has been charged in an scheme to obtain clean titles for 180 wrecked and salvaged cars and put them back into service.

The U.S. attorney's office in Chicago unsealed an indictment Monday against 67-year-old Alexsandr Igolnikov of Northbrook. He was charged with conspiracy, interstate transportation of false automobile titles and possession of false auto titles. A federal grand jury handed up the indictment last month.

Prosecutors say Igolnikov owns a used car business and is vice president of Chicago Elite Cab Corp.

The indictment says he and three auto brokers bought vehicles with salvage titles from online auction sites, obtained fraudulent Indiana titles and used those reissued titles to obtain clean Illinois titles.

City rules ban vehicles with "salvage" or "rebuilt" titles from being used as taxis.