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Template:Did you know nominations/2020–2022 catalytic converter theft ring

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The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by AirshipJungleman29 talk 13:49, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

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2020–2022 catalytic converter theft ring

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Moved to mainspace by Queen of Hearts (talk). Nominated by CommissarDoggo (talk), Queen of Hearts (talk), Epicgenius (talk), and Vami_IV (talk) at 21:05, 19 February 2024 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/2020–2022 catalytic converter theft ring; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.

@Queen of Hearts, CommissarDoggo, and Epicgenius: CommissarDoggo is qpq exempt but I have I donated a qpq anyway. The article was 5x expanded and the hook is interesting and cited in the article - in two separate spots. It is sourced, cited and neutral. No image has been offered here, Before I can continue with a review we need to address quite a bit of WP:CLOP see here. Lightburst (talk) 02:04, 20 February 2024 (UTC)
@Lightburst: Thanks for pointing this out, over the past couple hours I managed to reduce similarity to 65% on the HuffPost source, most of which is now down to either quotes or facts. Same goes for another source used across the article, Bloomberg, which I reduced to 79%. At this point I'd welcome an independent editor to rewrite sections to reduce it further, as I'm drawing blanks on where else I can do so. CommissarDoggoTalk? 15:14, 20 February 2024 (UTC)
@CommissarDoggo: Will wait to hear from the other co-nominators. Lightburst (talk) 15:11, 20 February 2024 (UTC)
With respect to my co-nominators, I think some sentences can be further rewritten. Although much of the text Earwig flagged is direct quotes, there are also phrases like "showed Curtis the ins and outs" and "in December 2019 the price of rhodium stood at $6,000" that aren't just stating simple facts. I'll have a go at rephrasing these later. Epicgenius (talk) 15:24, 20 February 2024 (UTC)
Some clop has been reduced for matches with the first two results. It only shows quote matches now. But the third source {Huffpost} shows some clop that needs attention. Lightburst (talk) 15:52, 22 February 2024 (UTC)
Finally sat down to try and get rid of a bunch, please re-check the sources at your leisure to see whether any further rewriting is necessary. CommissarDoggoTalk? 00:27, 26 February 2024 (UTC)
Since there's been a lapse of a couple weeks here, I'll jump in and re-review. Close paraphrasing has been sufficiently reduced, I think; article remains DYK-eligible as of the time of submission; article and hook remain sourced, cited, and neutral. Hook is interesting, article is fascinating. Good to go. This one's for you, Vami. ezlev (user/tlk/ctrbs) 18:58, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
What a great article. I really want to promote it, but I'm getting stuck on the wording of the hook. How do we know that it generated $545 million in revenue? NBC News suggests the U.S. Justice Department is seeking to recover $545 million (which suggests $545 million was generated but is a little different), while HuffPost says that DG Auto received $545 million from two companies (but isn't it possible some of that revenue was "legitimate"?). Somehow the hook seems too "concrete". @Vami IV, Queen of Hearts, Epicgenius, and CommissarDoggo: Would you be willing to reword or propose some ALT hooks? Cielquiparle (talk) 11:59, 17 March 2024 (UTC)
@Cielquiparle: To clarify, the forfeiture the government was looking for was in regards to how much money Dowa Metals and Mining America (a single company that operates as the US branch of Dowa Holdings, Japan) provided to DG Auto Parts for the precious metal dust they received from DG Auto Parts' operation. This is also noted here: https://archive.ph/20231218000134/https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-catalytic-converter-theft-ring/ - There was still the matter of DG Auto’s refiner, which investigators had identified early on as the source of the money—all $545 million they ultimately counted—that had passed through DG Auto’s operation: Dowa Metals & Mining America, in Burlington, New Jersey.
As for the Huffpost source, the source says From October 2019 to October 2022, Vang Auto sold $38 million worth of converters to DG Auto. Over that span, DG Auto received $545 million from Dowa Metals and Mining America. Those are two separate entities, with Vang Auto being a catalytic converter theft operation in California. Those are also two separate figures, with Vang Auto selling $38m worth of stolen catalytic converters to DG Auto Parts, who would then decan them and send the precious metal dust to Dowa Metals and Mining America.
While yes it is true that some of the money gained through these sales to Dowa Metals and Mining America were from legitimate sources of catalytic converters (there were several mentions to this in sources - I think I mentioned some from Bloomberg and from Huffpost but I could be wrong - from people either willing or unwilling to mention their names due to the unwanted attention they may receive), the large majority of the sales were from illegitimate sources. CommissarDoggoTalk? 12:28, 17 March 2024 (UTC)
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