FBI details Florek raid 11/23/00
After a six-month probe, federal agents allege in an affidavit the Flagstaff auto dealership has engaged in massive fraud that could cost customers and banks millions of dollars.
© Copyright Arizona Daily Sun 2000
First of a three-part series
By LARRY HENDRICKS
Sun Staff Reporter
Rolling back odometers.
Selling salvaged vehicles as "good, used" ones.
Forging Social Security numbers and signatures.
Falsifying auto loan applications and sales contracts.
Those are some of the allegations against the Joe Florek Volkswagen and Audi dealership contained in an affidavit filed by the FBI to obtain search warrants that were served in October on the Flagstaff business and other locations associated with it.
The 59-page affidavit was unsealed by a judge this week, and it describes in detail a six-month investigation into alleged bank fraud, mail and wire fraud, and odometer fraud.
The affidavit was prepared by Marilyn Shefveland, a special agent with the FBI assigned to the Bank Fraud Task Force in Phoenix, which has been investigating the Florek dealership since March 2000.
No arrests have been made regarding the violations outlined in the affidavit.
Marc Dallacroce, a special agent with the FBI, said the investigation is continuing. He was unable to comment on the status of the investigation and if any arrests were imminent.
The FBI has had help of the Flagstaff Police Department, the Coconino County Sheriff's Office and the Metro anti-drug task force, the Arizona Attorney General's Office, the Arizona Department of Transportation, the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division and the State Department of Liquor Licenses and Control.
The affidavit, an explanation of why there was probable cause to justify the search warrants, was unsealed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Morton Sitver on Monday.
Another search warrant was served on a second dealership, Gray Mountain Auto Connection near Cameron on North Highway 89, also owned by co-owners Jay Wigdore, 42, and Steve Fiorentino, 46, of the Florek dealership.
A third was served on Fender Bender, an auto body repair shop on East Huntington Drive that the dealership operates for servicing its own vehicles and its customers' vehicles.
A fourth was served on a storage shed at Coconino Mini Storage rented by the business.
According to the affidavit, the probe was launched in part after the Flagstaff Police Department reported receiving more than 40 complaints regarding business practices at the Florek dealership and the Gray Mountain dealership.
Joanne Bonfilio, the consumer
project investigator
For the rest of the story go to: http://www.azdailysun.com/flagstaff/story.nsf/ByDocId/B736456E6FF1439D072569 A000606EA3?OpenDocument#top |
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