STUPID STUFF FRAUDSTERS BUY: The Gold-Plated Cybertruck

Because apparently a regular Cybertruck just wasn’t conspicuous enough.

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Fort Worth, TX – September 30, 2026 – Welcome to the first installment of a new CUCollector Friday feature: Stupid Stuff Fraudsters Buy.

Over the years, federal prosecutors have introduced us to fraudsters who allegedly or admittedly spent their ill-gotten gains on mansions, yachts, Lamborghinis, Rolexes and enough other luxury goods to keep federal asset-forfeiture auctions busy for decades.

But every once in a while, someone takes conspicuous consumption to another level.

Meet Kevin D. Curry and his gold-plated Tesla Cybertruck.

Yes, gold-plated.

Because when you’re spending money federal prosecutors say came from defrauding a health care program serving military members and their families, apparently the angular stainless-steel pickup that already looks like something driven off the set of a science-fiction movie isn’t quite noticeable enough.

You have to make it gold.

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Subtlety Was Apparently Not an Option

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a federal jury in Fort Worth convicted Curry on September 24 of health care fraud, paying illegal health care kickbacks and engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property.

Federal prosecutors said Curry owned and operated three purported mental-health clinics in Texas and Florida and orchestrated a scheme involving transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, therapy.

The government says Curry and his businesses submitted more than $26 million in false, fraudulent and kickback-tainted claims to TRICARE, the health care program serving members of the military, retirees and their families. TRICARE paid approximately $17 million.

Curry was accused of paying more than $5.5 million in kickbacks to convince patients to consent to treatments they did not qualify for and, in some cases, never received. Prosecutors also said Curry falsely represented himself as a medical doctor, used doctors’ credentials without their knowledge and directed employees to fabricate medical records.

Serious stuff.

But this is Friday. We’re here to talk about the truck.

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Behold, the Evidence

Among the things Curry did with the proceeds, according to prosecutors, were hotel stays and a lavish casino-themed party.

And then there was the Tesla; not just a Cybertruck.

A 2024 gold Tesla Cybertruck worth more than $100,000, which investigators seized along with $136,022 in cash. Federal authorities said approximately $200,000 in assets were seized in connection with the case. (justice.gov)

The Justice Department even did us the courtesy of photographing it.

There it sits in the government’s own evidence photograph, gleaming gold from bumper to bumper—the automotive equivalent of walking into a bank wearing a diamond-encrusted sandwich board reading: PLEASE NOTICE ME!

One can debate the styling of a Cybertruck. One can debate whether gold improves it.

What seems considerably harder to debate is whether driving around in a six-figure gold Cybertruck is the optimal strategy for someone hoping his financial activities will escape attention.

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Money Can’t Buy Taste

There is something fascinating about what happens when fraud money starts flowing. Apparently, buying a nice car isn’t always enough.

It has to be the Lamborghini, the yacht, the enormous watch, the mansion, the private jet. Or, in this case, a vehicle that already attracts attention everywhere it goes—finished in gold.

Curry now faces up to 10 years in federal prison on each of the nine counts on which he was convicted. His sentence will be determined later by a federal judge.

As for the Cybertruck, federal authorities already seized it.

Which brings us to the official scorecard for our inaugural edition of Stupid Stuff Fraudsters Buy:

BOUGHT: Gold-plated 2024 Tesla Cybertruck
PRICE: More than $100,000
MONEY CAME FROM: Proceeds of a multimillion-dollar TRICARE fraud scheme
SUBTLETY: None detected
WHERE IS IT NOW?: Seized by the federal government

And perhaps the most important lesson of all: Money may be able to buy you a gold Cybertruck, but it apparently cannot buy taste or invisibility.

STUPID STUFF FRAUDSTERS BUY: The Gold-Plated Cybertruck – STUPID STUFF FRAUDSTERS BUY: The Gold-Plated Cybertruck – STUPID STUFF FRAUDSTERS BUY: The Gold-Plated Cybertruck

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