Car Dealer Lawyer

You’re selling cars in a tough market, and F&I grosses are great.  Life is good.  But what if your F&I manager is not who he says he is?  What if he is a part of a scheme to launder money and help criminals buy cars using other people’s identities.  What if you woke up one morning, read the morning paper, and the headline was “Lawrence car dealerships tied to scam aiding criminals”?  What if you then discovered that ten of your employees as well as your dealership were charged?  Well, that’s apparently what happened to two dealers in Lawrence, New York.

This story shows how important it is to do good background checks when you hire, especially with managers.  It also shows how important it is to have someone watching F&I very closely.  I don’t care how good these guys were – there had to be some smoke somewhere, and nobody caught it.  Watch the interview of the dealership’s operations manager, who claims that the dealership was a victim too.  Don’t be a victim.  With F&I, “trust but verify.”  Nah, on second thought, don’t trust.

You can read the full story about it here.