Everyone’s favorite question for an exotic car collector is, “Hey – do you mind telling me what you do for a living?” Well – now we know.

Even if you didn’t know him, you probably knew of him – who? The infamous Murcielago driving car collector who owned a series of local steak houses funded by a different series of insanely lucrative scams – well, until he was caught (karma, right?). Osama El-Atari was the owner of a local chain of steak houses called the Original Steakhouse (now renamed the All American Steakhouse and under new management) where you could find him on occasion flaunting a seemingly endless parade of exotic cars he owned. In 2008 at the young age of 29, Osama was the headliner of a Washington Post article exploring the local “super rich” despite a failing economy. He’s quoted in the article saying “I have no other bad habits, I drive my cars to work.” When the article was written, El-Atari had his Lambo Murcielago (pictured), a Cadillac Escalade, a Rolls Royce Phantom, another Lambo, two Ferraris and two Mercedes.

But by 2010, it was discovered that “work” was an intricately laid banking scam totaling $71 MILLION dollars (yes – million dollars) stolen from local banks in Maryland, DC and Virginia by putting up falsified life insurance policies as collateral for major loans. What goes around comes around and Mr. Atari was sent to prison for a mere 12 years with the requirement that he pay back the 71 million (which he paid back 17 million of… using a different type of scam) upon his release. But after only serving 2 of 12 years, Osama got in good with the court system by becoming an informant on his cell mate who murdered 2 young girls and a Navy Seal in 2009 (for which the cell mate later received the death penalty) and was released after serving only 2 of 12 years.

Now 37, Osama El-Atari was reported missing Thursday from his Leesburg residences and was located on February 14th, 2016, inside his pickup truck shot to death in Prince George’s County according to a Loudoun Times article on the case. Local law enforcement is offering $2,500 for information leading to an arrest in the homicide.

In 2009 Osama was a well known “car guy” that has, for obvious reasons, been out of the car game for a while and whether or not your thought regarding his murder seem justified, this is all around a wildly interesting story of the “behind the scenes” look into an infamous local car collector.