Ad Agency Scams Dealers Out Of $1.2 Million

Raymond Reggie has been sentenced to 11 years in prison and ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution after he defrauded dealers. Reggie is the CEO of the NexLevel group, which handles advertising for dealers. The problem is that Reggie billed dealers for advertising that he didn’t provide. The organization was supposed to place dealer ads in print and on TV and instead sent false billing statements. The fraud occurred between January 2009 and July 2012.

Essentially, NexLevel billed dealers for advertisement expenses that were completely bogus. In the end, however, dealers sent NexLevel 138 checks totaling $1,217,657.36 for doing nothing. Reggie then diverted the funds from the false payments to a personal account. The Department of Justice reported that he was also engaged in tax and bank fraud during the same period during which he was defrauding dealerships out of their hard-earned cash. Reggie pleaded guilty to five counts of mail fraud back in October 2014.

Speaking on this case, U.S. Attorney Walt Green spoke about Ray Reggie’s fraud in a statement saying, “Being articulate, smart, charming, and connected are often characteristics seen in successful con artists, like this defendant. This defendant only accepted responsibility after realizing that his efforts to smear and blame others would not save him from the harsh reality of the law and facts.” Not to be outdone, Reggie tried to turn back on his guilty plea from October of last year before his sentencing. Reggie strangely claimed that he was impaired by a stroke when he pleaded guilty and wanted to change his mind. The judge said no. Having an opportunity to speak for himself about what he did Reggie explained, ” I never stole anything. I never broke the law. It was a non-traditional pay arrangement.” That “non-traditional” pay arrangement has set Reggie up with a traditional 135-month prison sentence.

Raymond Reggie defrauded dealers out of $1.2 million. What do you make of his fraud? What does your store do in order to make sure that your advertising is handled properly and in a timely manner? Do you typically pay an ad agency before work is done, or cut a check once they do what they were paid to do?