Former Dealer Principal Pleads Guilty To $50 Million In Bank Fraud

A former dealership owner has pleaded guilty to $50 million in bank Fraud. Eminiano Reodica Jr., 71, spent nearly 30 years on the run after defrauding investors. Reodica owned Grand Chevrolet of Glendora, which was at the time (mid-1980s) was reportedly the third-largest dealership in the USA. He reportedly told investors that the store would become the largest in the world. Then, in 1988, the dealership went bankrupt and Reodica fled to the Philippines. He was arrested at LAX in 2012 while traveling to a family wedding in Canada. Reodica had to be fingerprinted as an incoming international visitor and his prints instantly matched in the computer system.

Grand Chevrolet went bankrupt because Reodica was a major fraudster and ran it into the ground. On October 7 of this year, one day before standing trial for his crimes in Los Angeles, Reodica elected to take a plea deal. As part of his plea deal Reodica admitted to defrauding at least five banks. According to reports, Reodica would direct his employees to promise the vehicle as collateral to two banks at the same time using forged signatures. The number of vehicles that were promised to multiple banks reportedly topped 400.

Vehicles were also repossessed and supposedly resold without telling the bank. Reodica also hid missed payments from banks and fronted payments for thousands of borrowers in order to maintain a good standing and borrow more money for his store. To top it all off, Reodica also reportedly asked his employees to sign on for car loans they weren’t really going to use so that Reodica could put that money back into his business.

According to Automotive News, Reodica ran his store in a very unorthodox manner. The Chevy store didn’t do advertising; instead they relied on built-in job applicants who were asked to provide a list of 2,000 friends and associates to whom they could sell vehicles. Reports also show that Reodica employed members of gangs to make sure that fellow employees would go along with the fraud.

After taking the plea deal and cooperating with authorities, Reodica could still be in prison for the rest of his life. At sentencing, Reodica could face a maximum sentence of 79 years in federal prison and a fine of $6,500,000.